NurseforPreggies

Use one or two fingers and go all the way around the circumference of the baby's head. If there is still cervix there you will feel it.

During my preceptorship we were allowed to do almost everything. Reading some of these posts has made me wonder if that is the way it should have been. We did assessments without RN present, passed meds, performed skills, and charted. It was of course up to the RN to do her/his own assessment and to sign off on all meds I gave and all charting I did or orders. When I took Dr's orders I signed my name and then NS for nursing student. Unlike the original poster this preceptorship took place in my last semester of nursing school, not one year before I graduated. I feel like it sounds the original poster is doing a great job, but it is definitely up to the RN to do her own assessments, etc.

If you are having fun and feeling comfortable I say do what you are comfortable with. It does sound to me that you are taking on quite a bit of responsibility, but that is not neccesarily a bad thing. Just be very careful not to accept responsibility that you cannot handle to please other nurses and get "positive feedback". The most important this is to know when to say no. You need to make sure that you can take care of your patients adequatly, make them your top priority.

Do you have to do a preceptorship before graduation? If so that is a great way to get your foot in the door at a particular place. I did 50 hours of my 250 hour preceptorship in L&D at a local hospital. One week before graduation I applied for a position on that floor. The unit manager remembered me, asked me one question "why I wanted to work at that hospital" and hired me on the spot. I'm not saying this will always be the case, but out of my class of 45 people approximately 30 or so got offered jobs because of their preceptorship experiences.

I graduated from a BSN program, and here are my thoughts: I feel like my BSN program was definitely worth the time involved to graduate as a bachelor's prepared nurse. Now this depends on what your goals for your career are as well as your current financial and family situation. As a young married woman with no kids, I'm glad I took this route. Overall the preparation was very good. I do feel that in some ways the program was a little too elementary (poster presentations, word searches, etc.) That was only a small portion of my learning however. The trials that I went through throughtout my program were mostly time management related. Many people talk about how nursing school is sooo hard. I did not feel that the material was difficult, but I did feel that there was ALOT of it. Time management skills are essential! You can only sit for boards after graduation from whatever program you choose. You can not even register until your final transcripts are sent from your school to your state BON.