Newbee24

Hello all! I am in a very sticky situation, and am looking for advise. I am a new grad, have been working on a very busy, short staffed floor for three weeks now. When I interviewed for the position I was told that everyone's orientation period was individualized, but the average time period was 8 to 10 weeks. Two weeks into orientation I am told that I will be on my own after 5 weeks. I think this is unbelievably unsafe! I just don't think I will be prepared in two more weeks. I tried to voice my concerns to my manager and she gave me an extra two days (she basically told me that is all she could do because I was already on the schedule and if she took me off the unit would be short staffed). And to top it off I will be orienting those two days on nights and my first day on my own will be that same week on days. So not only will I be starting on my own but I will probably be sleep deprived. I just don't know what to do. We all know that new grad positions are hard to come by these days, so I can't just quit. But I want to be safe! I do not want to harm patients or put my license on the line. How do I handle this? Should I quit if I go to the manager again and she says I can't have more orientation time? And if so how do I explain this to future potential employers without looking like I couldn't hack it? ...I really don't want to quit, I like the patient population and everyone on the unit seems to be friendly, but I also know that I have A LOT to learn to do and two and a half more weeks just is not going to cut it. The whole situation has made me more than a little disillusioned with the nursing profession. This was my dream position and its turned out to be exactly what I was trying to avoid.