6 weeks of preceptorship program

Preceptorship and probation aren't necessarily the same thing. In my world, your preceptorship can be as short as 2 weeks, while the probationary period is 504.75 hours, or 13.35 weeks of full time hours. When I started my first hospital job as a new grad, my preceptorship was 4 weeks on a neonatal stepdown unit.

No worries! A preceptorship is the period of time you're buddied with and supervised by someone else while you learn the job. Probation is when you prove you're up to the job. My current unit is a very high acuity PICU where the new grad orientation/preceptorship is 16 weeks in most cases. Some people have slipped through the cracks and finished their probationary period while still being shepherded along by a senior nurse. THEN management realizes that the new nurse isn't quite cut out for our unit and it's too late to do anything about it. Happens about 4 times a year...