Terminated and in despair

RN1982 · May 8, 2008

Don't fret. You are not a complete failure. Apply to other hospitals. I would strongly suggest applying to an internship program in the ICU, if there is not one to apply to, please start out on stepdown or med-surg to get your skills down. Don't be upset.

jjjoy, LPN · May 8, 2008

Unfortunately, too often there ISN'T enough time or proper support for a new grad to get to where the facility wants them to be. So instead, too many new nurses have to get that extended training by serial preceptorships. Like you, they don't progress fast enough for the hospital's time-line, quit or get terminated, and start again somewhere else one or two times. The new nurse is building up their skills and exposure to a full nursing workload with each new cycle and by the time they get to cycle three, they could very well finally be prepared to be on their own by the end of the orientation/preceptor time-line.

It may be that you'll "never get it" but one or two false starts as a new nurse are NOT enough evidence that this isn't for you. Plus, with each different experience, you learn better what does and doesn't work for you so you are in a better position by attempt three or four to better identify what opportunities WON'T work for you so you that you can get closer to finding a good fit. But at first, you have so little experience that it can be next to impossible to be able to make a good judgement about what will more likely be a good fit for you.

So give yourself a few more attempts before making the judgement that this is due to any lack on your part. And if later, you still can't seem to make it work, THEN you can re-evaluate if you want to continue to pursue this type of nursing position or to start looking into other alternatives. Meanwhile, try to listen to what kind of feedback you've gotten. Sort through it for any useful tidbits that can help you improve your practice and progress and toss out any demoralizing, unconstructive criticism (a lot of people really don't know how to give useful feedback - eg "you need to learn to prioritize better" isn't a very useful pieces of advice and you could translate it to, "I can review XX problem so that I'll be more informed and able to better prioritize on THAT issue in the future").

And give yourself a pat on the back for having a cushion (savings) to be able to deal with this frustrating time without also having to worry about meeting your most basic needs.

RN1982 · May 8, 2008

Unfortunately, too often there ISN'T enough time or proper support for a new grad to get to where the facility wants them to be. So instead, too many new nurses have to get that extended training by serial preceptorships. Like you, they don't progress fast enough for the hospital's time-line, quit or get terminated, and start again somewhere else one or two times. The new nurse is building up their skills and exposure to a full nursing workload with each new cycle and by the time they get to cycle three, they could very well finally be prepared to be on their own by the end of the orientation/preceptor time-line.
It may be that you'll "never get it" but one or two false starts as a new nurse are NOT enough evidence that this isn't for you. Plus, with each different experience, you learn better what does and doesn't work for you so you are in a better position by attempt three or four to better identify what opportunities WON'T work for you so you that you can get closer to finding a good fit. But at first, you have so little experience that it can be next to impossible to be able to make a good judgement about what will more likely be a good fit for you.
So give yourself a few more attempts before making the judgement that this is due to any lack on your part. And if later, you still can't seem to make it work, THEN you can re-evaluate if you want to continue to pursue this type of nursing position or to start looking into other alternatives. Meanwhile, try to listen to what kind of feedback you've gotten. Sort through it for any useful tidbits that can help you improve your practice and progress and toss out any demoralizing, unconstructive criticism (a lot of people really don't know how to give useful feedback - eg "you need to learn to prioritize better" isn't a very useful pieces of advice and you could translate it to, "I can review XX problem so that I'll be more informed and able to better prioritize on THAT issue in the future").
And give yourself a pat on the back for having a cushion (savings) to be able to deal with this frustrating time without also having to worry about meeting your most basic needs.

I agree.

lvnandmomx3 · May 8, 2008

I have heard over and over again that it is best to start out in medsurg for atleast a yr. Is this one of the reason because you can't learn all you need to in the short orientationt time? At the same time building up skills and time management.

Aniri25 hang in there you will find the right fit for you.

RN1989 · May 9, 2008

I suggest going to a medsurg area. Learning to become a nurse is hard enough in these times of poor orientation but learning such critical skills is much too difficult until you have confidence and better knowledge base. Medsurg is fast paced but at least you are not working with pt's that are as complex as ICU patients in that one tiny oversight could kill them immediately. That takes the pressure off some. Once you get some experience, you can try ICU again and blow their socks off because you are accustomed to the fast pace of multiple pts and the 2 pts in ICU will seem like a piece of cake.