What's one thing you wish your preceptor knew?

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I'm working on an article for mentors/preceptors--kind of a 'ten things every preceptor should know.' What was/is/will be one or two things you wish your preceptor/teacher knew?

For me it was: When you tell me I don't need to be nervous, I realize everyone can tell that I'm nervous and then I get even MORE nervous. Please, if you see me flushing or shaking just pretend you don't notice.

I also had a preceptor who met me on day one and introduced the first patient as 'Mr Smith S/P MVR on CVVHD until the echo team shows up to do a TEE.' I spent all day scribbling down acronyms to look up later.

Specializes in neurology, cardiology, ED.

My preceptor was great, but here are some general things that I've noticed, for me anyway:

1) Just because I don't ask a ton of questions doesn't mean I'm not paying attention. I just like to absorb the information, and will probably ask you questions tomorrow after I've thought about it for awhile.

2) Please tell me right away if I'm doing something wrong. I'd like the opportunity to fix it myself rather than have you fix it for me if at all possible. (My preceptor would always add things to my assessments and shift notes without telling me. If she'd said "Oh, you didn't mention in your abdominal assessment whether it was flat or distended", I would have noted it, but she always did it for me!)

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