emeraldcity

I would think Pre-Op/PACU: Monday through Friday, no weekends, no holidays. You have patients for a short time so if they're nice you enjoy them and if they're not, they're gone soon. No turning bariatric patients every 2 hours and injuring your back.

Sounds like the preceptor and nurse manager I had for my end of school experience. Nobody can learn it all that fast, and your preceptor is dropping the ball by criticizing you instead of supporting you. It's not rocket science and it sounds like you're performing right where you should be. If they're disappointed it reflects on poor teaching on their part. My nurse manager also took that hm...not sure you're good enough, better keep trying to prove yourself to me attitude. She liked people to be anxious to please her and under her boot. My flaky preceptor would ignore and neglect me then criticize me to her. I just smiled, did my work, and told my school instructor the facts about how I wasn't being mentored and used instead to staff the unit. On the last day when most people would have inquired about getting hired, the nurse manager hung around near me all day and I didn't say a word except hello. She approached me later and said "I guess this is your last day huh" (like here's where you grovel to me for a job) and I said um hm, thanks for having me. End of conversation. I got a much better job at a far nicer unit with far better preceptoring (far better everything) and am so glad it didn't work out at the first place. I refused to even apply there, and it propelled me to a better place. Hopefully the same will be true for you. You are plenty smart enough if you've made it this far. Now that I'm an experienced nurse, and doing great, and teaching students myself, I see even more clearly how much they shortchanged me and blamed it on me. I'm sorry it appears you are getting the same treatment. Three patients is plenty for your level of experience while you try to learn all the policies and procedures on your unit. You are probably doing fine. My advice would be to hold your head up, be VERY vocal and insistent about what training you need, and apply other places in the meantime. If they don't care enough to nurture you, someone else will. Don't listen to rude intimidation about 120 nurses lined up to take your place. She just showed you she's not a good person to work for and you should explore other options. She's not going to get nicer later on. Best of luck to you.

You would be making about the same amount of money as an RN, right? Not worth the debt and the lost income during school in my opinion. Also, you can make a positive influence on lots of peoples' lives --like coworkers--without being a nurse. Working nurses have precious little time to give the tlc they would like to. Just my 2 cents.