students! they have no sympathy!

lauramae18 · Feb 20, 2008

ummmmmmm, no.

Seriously, I had a fantastic preceptor and when she was off I had a great group to pick from. But several of my friends in other units had the same problems as you. It seems like, though, that you are doing ok with this style of "find the answer yourself and come to me for emergencies only". Just think of how resourceful you are now! And, I am sure that there are other nurses in your unit you could quickly ask if you have problems. Find the 2 or 3 that like to know it all. Always good to go to them.

MelBel · Feb 20, 2008

My second preceptor had the style of "do it for yourself, come find me when you need to". But she was ALWAYS available, and she also always knew what was going on with my patients. She made me think through things, and never just gave me the answers to the questions. Sometimes it was frustrating, but really, that was what I needed in order to be successful on my own once I was off orientation! She prepared me VERY well for life off orientation. Once you are done, you won't have someone to give your meds for you, and even though it feels nice now when someone does that, it will be more difficult for you when you don't have that option.

labrador4122, RN · Feb 21, 2008

My second preceptor had the style of "do it for yourself, come find me when you need to". But she was ALWAYS available, and she also always knew what was going on with my patients. She made me think through things, and never just gave me the answers to the questions. Sometimes it was frustrating, but really, that was what I needed in order to be successful on my own once I was off orientation! She prepared me VERY well for life off orientation. Once you are done, you won't have someone to give your meds for you, and even though it feels nice now when someone does that, it will be more difficult for you when you don't have that option.

I think that is what is happening to me. She is the same type as your second preceptor... but it is frustrating. One of the days I was about to give a med, and then another nurse pulls me aside and asks if I want to do pin care so I can get signed off on that skill. I said, well let me ask my preceptor because I have to give a med at 7, so I ask and the preceptor says OK... so I give her the med for 7am... I come out 30 mins later... she has the med in her hand... still. *****!:angryfire

it's 7:30am it's time for report, she gives me the med to hang, an iv antibiotic, then she tells me ok now give report.

*****! I am hanging a med that I asked her to hang for me so i could get signed off for pin care. she could of said 'no' to me for the pin care. I do work in an post surgical floor where we get ortho pts.

that day was very frustrating, my first night with that second preceptor.

so the following night, I gave my meds 1 hour early if they were 4am meds, I took all of them out of the pixis, put them next to the computer, and dragged the computer with the meds to each room and gave the meds. (we have a computer medication system to check the meds before giving to pt for safety).

I had report written to make sure that i covered anything pending the history of the pt....

I don't like that she did that to me. Because i looked bad infront of the day nurse, and the students.

i can't wait until I am not with her anymore.

I really hope she calls out on friday

then after that i have 3 more days with her. :yeah:

Roseyposey · Feb 21, 2008

It sounds like you have two separate issues here. Can you ask to be switched to the other preceptor? Not all personality types mesh well, and this is a critical time, you should be with the person who you learn from best.

Secondly, the students have no business treating a floor nurse like that - whether you're in training or you've been there 20 years. They are the students, they are the visitors, not you. If they are rolling their eyes and mocking you, you need to address their behavior with their instructor.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 21, 2008

Some students have the unavoidable tendency to harshly judge the people they encounter at their clinical sites. I personally believe their judgments stem from their idealistic (read: unrealistic) standards of real nurses who practice in the real world of nursing. As long as these students keep their snarky remarks to themselves, it's all good.

However, they have no business disrespecting you openly with snide comments. You may want to tell them to keep quiet if they have nothing nice to utter. If they continue to be smart alecks, report them to the CI (clinical instructor).

labrador4122, RN · Feb 21, 2008

Thanks guys!

I agree with you all, next time if I see that the students are rolling their eyes at me or making little side remarks to eachother infront of me I will take it with the instructor (I used to be a CNA in the PICU where their instructor works as a nurse manager :0). ). That is just plain rude.

And the preceptor, I can't change it, because I am almost done with her anyway, just 4 more shifts.... and basically I am doing everything by myself, so I will use her if I need her to sign me off on a skill or whatever else.

Thanks for the support:heartbeat again.

november17, ASN, RN · Feb 24, 2008

If any of the nursing students in my class had done that to a nurse when I was in school, they would have gotten their heads torn off by the instructors.

You wouldn't treat one of your coworkers that way when they were reporting off to you. Their behavior was very unprofessional and disrespectful. Ignore them - who cares what they think anyways?

EmmaG, RN · Feb 24, 2008

I was in my 4th week of orientation last week with a new preceptor. and the preceptor is nice, but wants me doing everything on my own.
She says "well if you have questions call me." ummm of course I have questions.
but I am pretty comfortable there, but still.
Thank Goodness my preceptor called out, so I was paired up with a new nurse for 2 nights in a row. I hope the preceptor calls out more. I feel that I have learned more from this new nurse than I have with the old preceptor.
She told me, ok, you chart, and I will give the meds >--- is that simple, to help out the new person when you know what you are doing yourself.
I really hope my preceptor is super sick (I know, it sounds mean) so I can get this new preceptor to orient me.
I have one week left after friday... and I feel good. but sometimes I feel like I've been thrown out there.........
does anyone else feel like this?

If you only have one more week of orientation, this new preceptor is doing you no favor by not making you take the entire group with her simply being a stand-by resource. You need to learn to prioritize and manage your time; you can't do that if the preceptor is giving meds so you can chart. That's not to say that when you get off orientation you won't need assistance--- we all do--- but you and your manager need to know you can 'fly on your own'.

As far as you wishing your preceptor is really super sick, well... I am just speechless.

november17, ASN, RN · Feb 24, 2008

If you only have one more week of orientation, this new preceptor is doing you no favor by not making you take the entire group with her simply being a stand-by resource. You need to learn to prioritize and manage your time; you can't do that if the preceptor is giving meds so you can chart. That's not to say that when you get off orientation you won't need assistance--- we all do--- but you and your manager need to know you can 'fly on your own'.
As far as you wishing your preceptor is really super sick, well... I am just speechless.

Amen to that. I was precepting a new orientee/GN last week and it was difficult for me to do. I'm only 9 months in myself!! The only reason I did it is because the GN got scheduled on days when the charge nurse felt that all the other "experienced" RNs were not good candidates to orientate. I tried to get out of it but the charge somehow talked me into it.

It was very difficult to step back and let the GN do everything herself though! That's what I instinctively did but I'm glad that I more or less did the right thing. I just stood by while she did the IV pushes and double checked her charting and everything. I tried to guide her in the right directions when I felt she wasn't prioritizing properly. It was hard to keep my mouth shut when she did things in ways that I wouldn't have done them...but I remembered back to when I was a student/GN and how much I hated it when nurses would make me do it "their way." All in all, orientating/precepting was a pretty boring experience. bleh. Nothing special to it (she already had a month of experience on the unit working the day shift but had just switched over to orient on nights).

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Feb 24, 2008

They were rude, but you didn't know the patient's diagnosis? Not cool. In any case the commentary was uncalled for.

Patty, I'm surprised that pin care took 30 minutes, I would have expected 5-10, with teaching and questions. Hanging an IV med takes less than that. If I was your preceptor I would have encouraged you to do them both yourself. BUT, perhaps your preceptor was held up with something the same way you were. JMO but juggling tasks is also a part of the orientation process. You can work on time management at the same time you work on skills.

november17, ASN, RN · Feb 24, 2008

They were rude, but you didn't know the patient's diagnosis? Not cool. In any case the commentary was uncalled for.
Patty, I'm surprised that pin care took 30 minutes, I would have expected 5-10, with teaching and questions. Hanging an IV med takes less than that. If I was your preceptor I would have encouraged you to do them both yourself. BUT, perhaps your preceptor was held up with something the same way you were. JMO but juggling tasks is also a part of the orientation process. You can work on time management at the same time you work on skills.

That reminded me, while I was precepting my GN she took 7 minutes to do a foley. The next patient over, I timed myself and I got it in a little over 2 minutes - not cutting corners or anything and including explaining to the patient what I was going to do.

Don't ask me why I time stuff

I think it just takes newer nurses a lot more time, since many don't really understand the value of time. One time when I was a CNA I figured out a mathematical formula to how much I got paid to answer each of the call lights and it came out to something like 25 cents per call light answered and elderly person that I helped to the bathroom. I think each bed bath I did earned me 75 cents per paycheck.

I think using a similar formula a foley probably earns me about $1 but probably earns the facility a couple of hundo. No matter how I do the foley, I still will earn the same amount of money, and so will the facility, so why not speed up the process a bit? Taking your time does not earn you more money!!

(I'll try to remember the formula; how much an hourly worker actually makes to do procedures; and post it some time).