Quandary For This Nurse

Davey Do · Aug 31

Reading your post, alaskaman, was enjoyable for it's to-the point succinctness. Of course, I empathize and can even commiserate to some degree with your situation.

All emotions stem from the basic two, love & fear. If we can identify which of these emotions motivate other's behavior, we can understand their actions. If a well-seasoned nurse causes me (editorially speaking) to feel threatened, or fearful, and if I put personalities before principles, I will react by attacking or belittling that nurse which will elevate my own low self-esteem.

Working against the current of our coworkers & peers is a difficult place to be, but I applaud your drive to persevere despite you being "tired". I also want to reinforce your comment on enjoying nursing, which is indicative of being a quality caregiver.

Too bad you have to put up with the BS.

The best to you, alaskaman.

JKL33 · Aug 31

Here's how I think of this:

Quote

She was harsh and incorrect in her assessments

Sounds like a personal problem.

Quote

I have had 3 so far and the others were satisfied with my work and performance.

The End.

No, really. Of course it's always wise, for our own personal benefit, to hear a criticism and take from it whatever we can to improve ourselves. Sometimes there are little things to take away even if the delivery was completely inappropriate. Once you've done that, let it go. If nothing useful was offered at all, let it go. It is that person's problem.

You're alright. Just be cognizant to go with the flow and learn how they do things at the new place. They have at least one thing going for them: They were willing to hire someone who knows something! That's no small matter these days.

take care ~

sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN · Sep 5

You know your abilities and experiences..... rely on that& best wishes

alaskaman · Sep 6

Thanks All. Things are going better. I talked with my new preceptor and she confirmed that the hospital makes is challenging. Her comment was welcomed. And I do know my abilities,,,,thank you for that reminder. It helped.

alaskaman · Sep 13

so last day in ICU orientation the preceptor was odd. He was constantly micro managing, and even to the point of changing drip rates and not communicating it to me. I have a check in the team manager this morning (surprised). There appears to be so much emphasis on moving patients quickly that they have not paid attention to actual care. In one case he turned off the precedex drip and turned off the levophed. The pt became more uncomfortable so his blood pressure increased. He said that both drips were not needed so the patient could transfer out of the ICU. I was of course surprised that this "technique" was his way of clearing a bed. He did not tell me either of his actions so when I inquired when he had turned off the drips he said I should have checked my medication verify on EPIC. He was clearly tense from the shift start... communication is not his strong point, but it did get me wondering about the way patients are " cared for" on the unit which is a fast paced SICU. 4 Impella pts yesterday, 2 triple A's with every med imaginable keeping them on the planet.

Most of my experience has been positive with he and another actually making it difficult to practice. I will talk this out. Each preceptor has something to teach and yet I felt confused as to why he would be so strategically difficult.

JKL33 · Sep 14

alaskaman said:

Each preceptor has something to teach and yet I felt confused as to why he would be so strategically difficult.

Since there's no good reason for him to be strategically difficult, it's probably the same old-same old. Which is that he gets some secondary personal gain (aka bolsters his own self-esteem) by doing these things that he feels make him appear more competent than you. You don't seem to know when patients medications can be shut off...he does 🙄 Etc.

I wouldn't spend too much precious life being confused about it or worrying about it. It's a personal problem...and not yours.

alaskaman · Sep 14

Indeed I was thinking that his hostility compounded by a basic dishonesty is his and his alone. I let go of the ICU component with the manager due to this yesterday in a meeting. I will be in the step down float pool now which is OK with me.

Throughput is the focus in their ICU's to an extreme. I asked him if he felt they had enough staff and he said yes. No one really takes their breaks there and the care is great for the super critical patients who most likely would not survive however as he himself rolled a 350# pt without assistance I could not help to think that the glory days of adequate ICU staffing are gone.

Imho due to the focus on punitive charting *which no one reads* which takes time away from the clinical judgements so necessary to promote healing I will see what I find on the step down units.

His intrusiveness was hard to fathom.

JKL33 · Sep 14

alaskaman said:

Throughput is the focus in their ICU's to an extreme.

ED became the same. I did learn to understand the concept and not completely disagree with it from a more bird's-eye perspective. I had just wasted too much time hoping that part of controlling the chaos would be redirecting non-urgent visits...and so far there has been very little desire to do that in my region. For example I 💯 disagreed with having a runny nose family plan sitting in a trauma room just because it happened to be open for 5 minutes when they were waiting to be seen. Doubt I will ever change my stance on that.

Doesn't matter much to me now because I finally accepted reality for what it was and found what, for me, were much greener pastures.