lencialoo

travel920... I'm so very sorry for your hard time in the NICU. I am also new in the NICU and almost 1/2 through my training (40 weeks). Our training is 1 day of class and 2 days in the unit. We have 20 weeks in level II/ 20 weeks in level III, which consists of 5 weeks/days with preceptor, 5 weeks/nights with preceptor then 5 weeks of "buddy time" with both days and nights where you are paired with the preceptor but have your own assignment. Our unit is very busy and at times we have had so many babies that precepting is harder but it seems like we are able to still get alot of learning done, it is far from an ideal situation but I can accept that. I have had a few rough spots on nights where I was paired with a very rude nurse for my preceptor and I asked my Ed. coordinator to change me, the 2nd preceptor was better but not by much. Many of the preceptors on nights are very new or they are the "old hens" that love to see the new grads struggle (sad but true). As others have suggested speak with your NM or Ed Coordinator and make is clear that you are struggling and new more help to be a "safe" NICU nurse...this is your right and responsibility to your little patients. I am in a group of 8 nurse all with diff levels of experience and learning speeds/styles. Dont let this get you down, keep your chin up and look at all you have learned and be proud of your strength. A very nice nurse on days asked me once when I was having a hard day if I ever felt like not coming to work...I said sometimes I did, she said "Dont worry I had days like that too" She advised me to journal and then look back on it later...that is good advise. Also find someone who you can call or speak with as a friend who understands and who you know will encourage you, you do need support. Make sure to get your sleep and also most important leave the problems at work and enjoy your family time and take some R&R for yourself...even 30 min to walk, read a magazine or take a hot bath will help. One thing I always do before going to work is pray. I know I need all the help I can get, so I ask for it each day. I made a little card that I lamenated and put behind my badge and I read it in my car before going it....it's a special prayer my boyfriends' father used to say to face each day......all this helps me. See attached file if you think it would help. God bless you and Good Luck to you....your lil patients will be better off with you as their nurse because it is obvious you have a good and kind heart. lencialoo Lord_help_me.doc

Thank you traumaRUs and Humbled_Nurse for your supportive replies !! I know that there are alot of nurses who do care and we have many of those on day shifts. I have heard of other NICUs that have the long orientations too and that is one of the reasons I wanted the NICU was because of the great training. I really do love working with the babies and also with the families and want to stay in NICU. One good part about nights is that we have alot of travel RNs and they are very nice and are easy to make friends with...probably because they are newbies most the time too. I also have a contact with a travel nursing agent that keeps encouraging me to try and stay at least through my training because he can get me travel NICU jobs in a nearby larger city but I need at least 9 months to 1 year experience before they can travel me. This NICU is the only one in my city at this time, although another hospital is opening a Level III NICU in 2008. I'm not a young nurse, this is a 2nd career for me but I guess I was naive enough to think that nursing would attract more than it's share of caring people...unfortunately it seems like that may not be true, but there are enough good people to make me want to stay if I can get through this rough time. Thanks again and I will update this post, I always learn so much from everyone here !!

Hi All, I thought I would ask this here since this seems to happen most often to new nurses. Sorry for the long post but I want to give some background. I am a new nurse still orienting in the NICU. We have 40 weeks of training which is separated into Level II/Level III (20 weeks days and 20 weeks of nights). I just started my Level III training (24th week) and so far things are going fine with some days better than others and I'm with a good preceptor. My problem is that while doing my Level II training on nights I was initially assigned a preceptor who did not want to precept and I was basically ignored or treated with rudeness until I spoke with my Ed. Coordinator and was changed to another preceptor. The 2nd preceptor seemed fine at first but I eventually found out that she was a car-pool buddy with the 1st preceptor and at the end of 5 weeks our night coordinator had a meeting with me in which I was presented with a "memo" which included 5 weeks of "mistakes" I had made...none of which my 2nd preceptor had brought up with me...and many of the "mistakes" that were presented were incorrect and painted me in a bad light. I wrote an "addendum" to this memo and asked that it be added to my file. I felt like I had been hazed by these two and the worst part is they are part of a group of about 4-5 nurses that hang together on nights. A few other new grads have spoken with me about this group and are apprehensive about working with them. None of the new grads are happy about eventually working night shift because of the staff and several of us have had very bad experiences with night shift preceptors. After this meeting with the "memo", my Ed. Coordinator (who wasnt even in the loop about the meeting) expressed her shock but changed me back to days where I started working with my 2nd great day preceptor. Not surprising, I was so stressed out from all this I started questioning myself and if I'm really cut out to be in NICU or even be a nurse. Our Ed. Coordinator took another job between Level II and Level III training and we now have an interim Ed. Coordinator that is doing fine but doesnt really want the job. Because of the situation with poor night preceptors all the new grads were given 8 weeks on days with Level III instead of 5 weeks, but we will be going to nights next month and will have 2 weeks with a preceptor then be assigned a buddy and basically be on our own with a buddy as a resource. I have done great with my daytime training and with both preceptors that I have had, they have given me great feedback and both have been patient and are very knowledgable. My problem is that the 2 bad preceptors that I had on nights barely speak with me and will not even make eye contact (I was afraid that this would happen when I initally spoke with our Ed. Coordinator before they changed me from night preceptor 1 to night preceptor 2). Yesterday my day preceptor and I took report from one of these nurses, which went fine, except that she would not make eye contact with me at all or even acknowledge I was there. This nurse was returning for night shift so my preceptor just told me I could give her report alone while she was assisting another nurse in our pod area with her babies. I started to give her report, asking her if she was ready, she was at an over-bed table taking notes from the chart...she just ignored me. I tried to just give her the updates from the night before and go over all orders received for the day...with no response from this nurse. She walked over to the 2nd babies warmer and started taking notes there. I went ahead and gave her updates on that baby and new orders...but she continued to ignore me...never making eye contact or acknowledging I was there, report was over very quickly. My day preceptor spoke with me a few minutes later and asked me if I made sure to give this nurse the new updates/orders etc. I told her that I had and that the nurse pretty much just ignored me and that I wasnt about to kiss her a** about it and that I had to go through this same treatment for 2 weeks with this lady until they changed my night preceptor. My preceptor then went over to this nurse and tried to give her more info., at which time this nurse pretty much ignored my preceptor, (NICU nurse with over 20 yrs exp. and well respected by everyone). This nurse never said a word to my preceptor or made eye contact with her either. We left together and neither of us said a word. My preceptor just said she would see me on sunday (our next day together)...but I know she was perplexed about it. I will be starting nights with a new preceptor (she is a part-time charge nurse and seems very nice) in 1 month, I will have 2 weeks with her then will be assigned a "buddy" for the remaining 12 weeks. My buddy could be anyone...as stated earlier night shift is not known for having the best nurses to precept or even help new grads. I am so anxious about this I am having strong thoughts of quitting NICU, which would be hard because I do enjoy the babies/families and many of the nurses, staff, etc. My question, does anyone have suggestions on how I can be proactive about this before I start nights and all hell breaks loose? I am afraid this group of nurses, esp this group will haze me and that both my license and even worse a baby might be at risk. I would be fine if I stayed on days but unfortunately all the new grads are going to be working nights as that is where they need staff. I know night shift is struggling, they are 5-7 nurses short on a regular basis...most new nurses on nights try to get day-shift asap and many actually have gone to our in-house temp staff and now work prn shift in NICU on days. It appears that the turn-over on nights is very high. Any advise would be appreciated. At this point I'm not sure who to go to or who to trust. Thanks in advance to everyone ! Sorry for the long post.

Purdue Nurse...could it be that you have "benign paroxysmal positional vertigo" caused by tiny crystals (otoliths) that have formed in the inner ear and when they start floating around they cause symptoms of vertigo ? See this website or just do a search of "benign paroxysmal positional vertigo" on the internet -> http://www.doctorhoffman.com/wwbppv.htm My Mom had similar symptoms without any physical indications for anything else and this was her dx. Her Dr taught her how to do the Epley Manuever and she has had pretty good success with it, although sometimes she ends up going back to the Dr to have him help her with getting the positions correct. Good Luck...hope you can determine what this is or that with some time it goes away ! lencialoo

travel920, Our Educational Coordinator meets with us regularly to see how things are going on with our learning and with preceptors and she believes that a mismatch puts learning way behind. I just honestly told her I was feeling really stupid with this preceptor and feeling so sick before coming in to work that I thought I would puke. I gave it a fair shake before I said anything but I was wondering myself how I was going to get through 10 weeks of that situation. My Coordinator made the decision to change me that day....needless to say she is very awesome...she is a wonderful NICU nurse herself and a great educator and negotiates for us ALL the time to try to make this experience the best it can be....there is no replacement for the Education Coordinator in training. The only downside is that this nurse wont even look my way now and I'm trying to figure out how to approach her to patch things up. It was one of my worst worries about saying anything....any suggestions from folks to help me approach her would be appreciated....I'm not so good with stuff like that. Also to all the preceptors who take time to teach...I want you all to know you are so appreciated !! Your work is not rewarded enough but it is sooo valuable to the NICU babies/families etc. Take care, Lencialoo

hi travel920, i can answer some of your questions from the "preceptee" point of view, i'm a new grad in training for the nicu and am 1/2 way through my level 2 training. i have had 3 different preceptors (1 excellent, 1 good and 1 bad): 1. what do you like about a preceptor? i can tell you that i learn best from a preceptor that is patient and kind. i dont mind it if they ask me alot of questions or push me either. 2. what do they do that you like? i have heard that it takes 6-10 times to learn a task well and feel comfortable so here again being patient is a virtue. i love it when they give "tips" about how to improve procedures or my time management and find these invaluable. 3. what do they do that you don't like? i dont like it when a preceptor points it out how stupid you are...this does happen. it's also hard to work with a preceptor that is a gossip (you always wonder what they are saying about you behind your back too). 4. have you ever experienced the "nurses eat their young" phenomenon? i have experience this with 1 preceptor, no-one can learn well in an environment that is hostile and where a preceptor makes you feel stupid...it's a self-fulling prophecy. i endured this for 2 weeks before saying anything because i wanted to give the preceptor a fair shake but things just got worse and i was thinking of quitting (only thinking) but it sure does give you a bad hit to your self-esteem when you have a mis-match. the worse part is when the preceptor gossips and everyone else knows all the details...it's very hard to live this down. i wasnt aware that grown nurses travel in clicks like high school girls. 5. how long do you believe a "proper" internship in a nicu should be? the total internship is 20 weeks of preceptorship + classes and then another 20 weeks of taking your own assignment with another nurses help in the next pod. the level 2 and level 3 are split up. 6. do you become attached to your "preceptor"? yes, when you have an excellent preceptor who loves teaching and is kind, patient and really wants to help you learn to be your best you owe that person a debt of gratitude. my first preceptor gave me the very best start and i will always appreciate her kindness toward me, she made me feel like i was truely her friend and i knew i could trust her to teach me all that she could to help me be my best. there are so many nicu nurses out there who do such a wonderful job of precepting, we owe them our "thanks" because they are invaluable to our learning and to the future care of these special babies. for those who prefer not to precept, please be kind enough to say "no", those of use who are preceptees will thank you for that too. not everyone is mature enough or meant to be a preceptor and that is okay, this doesnt say anything about your ability to be a great nicu nurse. hope this helps your interview. :zzzzz lencialoo

alb123 I am also a new grad. (one of 8 in our class too). I also have 40 weeks of orientation and am in my 7th week for the level II babies. I just started my rotation to night shift. After having a wonderful preceptor for days and starting to feel a bit more comfortable with my skills I now have a new night preceptor who slept for several hours off/on during my 1st night on, her napping was in a quiet corner of the unit but we did very little precepting. She took 1 baby and gave me 3 with very little help. My night was very stressful and I didnt get a break until 4am (not even to pee...funny how you can go almost 9-10 hours while on a shift but can't make it over 2 hours in class :-) ). On top of it all she is a type A personality and not very patient, has some little nasty comment when-ever I dont do something to her expectations. My self-esteem just did a nose-dive. I had to talk myself into going in the 2nd night but I got through it and she wasnt as bad and only napped for a short period and wasnt as much of a "nursezilla" the 2nd night. I just try to let it roll off and when I feel that patient safety is at risk I tell her I'm not comfortable doing a procedure by myself. Everyone seems to like her and she can be very funny at times so I'm trying to hang in there, plus she has great intuition when it comes to the little ones... I'm just hoping the napping was not a normal thing for her and she was just very tired that day. The good thing is that I found I'm very much a night person and love the night shift hours and so far - 4 days I have not felt tired except at the very end of my shift and have never caught myself even tempted to nap. I did speak with our Ed. coordinator not to be a rat but to let her know what was happening. It's always good to at least give someone a heads up about your situation just to cover yourself and in case things get worse. Hang in there with your orientation....thanks for posting your problem, it helped me to know I wasnt alone....I hope you also know you arent alone and others understand what you are going through and dont agree with napping like this. Take care of yourself.

1. how many questions did you take on nclex? 75 questions 2. what study materials did you use? did you take a test review course? saunders, ncsbn learning extension, lipincott (pda), kaplan 3. did your son offer any testing (eri, ati, hesi)? eri 4. how long did you wait for results of the test, or are you still waiting? 48 (long) hours 5. what were your thoughts coming out of the test (total disbelief, certainty you had failed, confident you had passed)? i was mixed, thought i did okay but wasnt sure whether i passed or not 6. was this your first attempt at nclex? 1st attempt (thank heavens) good luck to everyone that is still studying, keep positive and take some time in between studies to enjoy and pamper yourself ! :balloons::cheers:

Wheeze, I'm a student nurse, graduating in May...this is some info I can give you about Colorado Springs.... Woodland Park is a very nice place, it is still small but growing fast. I have heard the hospital there will be very small but with your experience you shouldnt have problems getting a job there. In addition there are 3 hospitals in Colorado Springs - Penrose Main, Penrose Community and Memorial Hospital. Many nurses drive down the pass to work at these hospitals and it isnt a bad drive when the weather is nice. Both Memorial and Penrose are building new hospitals in north Colorado Springs with Memorial opening in 2007 and Penrose in 2008. Hope this helps you to make a decison. Good Luck !!!

Hope, Thanks for your reply....it does seem like nursing school is getting harder all the time. The ERI is a testing company that is supposed to help guide students in studying for the NCLEX. Originally we were only using them to help us to know what areas we needed more work on but the tests never give you exact answers to your questions, they just print out a general guideline of what areas you are at risk. (ie Nursing diagnosis, Inferring Risk, etc) Our pass rates at PPCC are always fairly high on the NCLEX though, upper 80% or 90%. I've read about other nursing schools using an exit test called the HESI. PPCC uses the ERI exclusively. You are correct that the grade point scale was raised from 92-100% = A; to 93-100% = A, the other grade points for B and C is still the same I think, with 76% and below failing. One of the instructors actually took this last ERI test and she said she couldnt even find some of the answers using our Med-Surg text book; she said she thought alot of the questions were really goofy !! All I can say is someone is making BIG money selling this bill of goods to Nursing School Deans :angryfire lencialoo only 2 more months to go and then we get to take our NCLEX !

Hi All Colorado Nursing Students ! This semester my school PPCC started making passing the ERI testing at 4% above the national average as part of our requirement to continue with school. Prior to this we had to take an ERI test at the end of each class but were not required to pass at 4% above the national average to continue with our program. Many students failed this test and now have until Feb 28th to re-take it or they will be dropped from the program (the students I know that failed are very, very good students). We are at the end of our program taking Med-Surg II. I think our school is so worried about their NCLEX passing rates that they are doing this to keep a high %. This doesnt make sense to me since our passing rates in 2005 was 89.5%(very close the 91.4% Beth-El - UCCS the other nursing school in our area & a 4yr school got). The ERI testing doesnt correlate well with any other tests that I have taken and certainly not with any NCLEX study books I have seen nor do they correlate well with any of the classes we have taken even though we take the tests at the end of each class. Are any of the other Nursing schools in colorado required to take this testing and if so do you have to pass at 4% above the national average to continue ? We were told that this is now a Colorado State Board of Nursing requirement but I have my doubts about whether this is true. Thanks to anyone who responds !! Good luck in school too !! lencialoo almost there - may 2006

To Everyone !! Please dont give up on your Nursing Career dreams because of all these exit tests. My school (PPCC - Colorado Springs) started out by making us take ERI testing at the end of each course. Last year we only had to take the test to see how we rank against the national average, this semester they told us that we must pass the exam with 4% above the natioinal average or we cant continue with our last bi-semester of med-surg II. I know of 14 people in my class of 38 that have to re-take the test or they cant go on. To make the matter worse the ERI tests have absolutely no correlation with the classes we have taken or with other tests we have taken. Many of the students that got scores below 4% are A-B students too and in my opinion they would all make excellent nurses. They all have a chance to take the test again but must pass by Feb 28th. I think others here that mentioned that the schools are only doing this to boost their NCLEX scores are totally correct. The sad part is that I personally dont think these tests are a good indicator of how students will do on the NCLEX. Good teaching and great nursing programs are the best predictors of success but school deans of nursing are so clueless they want to take all the shortcuts they can. At my nursing school we were told that our state board of nursing required the tests, but another student called a community college in Denver and they said they only ues the ERI to help students know what to study for the NCLEX. So far I have passed all my tests but this is so stressful for everyone. The extra time to take these tests and then retake them if you dont pass is sucking all the energy out of me when I should be studying my NCLEX books. Good luck to everyone having trouble with these tests, please dont let this get you down, if you have gotten this far in nursing school, in my book you are the best of the best....too bad these tests make great students feel like losers...It's wrong !! :angryfire :angryfire lencialoo

i have heard that the less periods a woman in her lifetime, the better it is for her health. when being asked about history for my periods i was told that if you are late in starting your period and for every pregnancy where it stops the better off you are. i think for those of us that have pms and premenstrual migraines (both for me) that having a period only 4 times/year would help. my doctor tried giving me the birth control pills for 3 months straight and it did eliminate my premenstrual migraines....unfortunately for me i also missed a pill 3 months into it and started a period the next day that lasted for a month !! yikes !! :crying2: on the other hand, i do wonder if we arent messing with mother nature though...

Lynda, I think it's a good idea to be open about going back for a BS or MS after getting the ADN. An advisor at PPCC looked over my records and said I would have to just take a statistics class and I would be ready to go on with a BSN. I hadnt really thought about the MSN but you are right, it may be a good idea to consider that as well. Most employers have educational benefits to help which is very nice and it also lets you get experience as a nurse so you have a better idea what direction you might want to go. I look at all the areas you can work and can't make up my mind what I would like the best !! :) Hopefully after I'm finished with clinicals and the dreaded NCLEX I will have it narrowed down. Hope you have a nice day, see you a bit later. :) Take Care Diane

LOL....John, it's good to know that sometimes nursing school can be fun too and not always just hard work and studies....it's all in your attitude :chuckle I have looked into Regis for my RN to BSN and think the program there would be a very good one...first things first though..have 2 years to make it through 1st. :) !! Thanks for all your replies ! Diane