Why do I hate this

Nursing is a culture, a way of life, it is exciting you live , eat and breath nursing. All who enter should aquire knowledge and skills that enable nurses to cope with stress. All must be treated with dignity and respect including the nursing staff. The behavior of the doctor is not acceptable, are you not able to approach, management concerning his behavior.

Thanks that helped. As for the doctor, I will take responsibility when I don't ask everything that I should have. But this doctor couldn't even manage to give me a complete order. He didn't have to do anything else! I won't take that responsibilty for him to do a basic doctor job!

Unfortunately, it appears that being a patient advocate includes performing duties that seem to be MD related rather than nursing. For instance, I assumed that doctors wrote their own orders. I found out not so. If I want something done, even if the doctor is standing right there, in many cases I have to write a verbal order and have it signed off which means that I had better know how to write orders. It seems like the nurse is responsible for everything and the buck begins and ends here.

I too have had similar feelings about my preceptor. I like her but she's not giving me what I need. She is at the end of her patience and I am having a confidence problem. It creates stress for both of us which is unnecessary and not helpful to me. With only one week left, I have sought out and asked for a new preceptor. My unit director had no problem with the switch. It's a professional decision. Speak up for yourself. Ask for what you need and know that nursing school is over and real world nursing bears no resemblence to it. All it did was get us in the door.

Hope you're feeling better about nursing soon.

Boy, I could write a book about preceptors. I am orienting to a critical care unit, at the end of a 6 month orientation. (Please, let's leave the discussion of new grads in the ICU for another thread.)

I have had so many bad preceptors, it is unbelieveable. Here is the run-down:

1. Watch me do this, but don't touch!

2. You can be my tech!

3. You can do everything! (patient in DIC, 6 doctors on consult to call, preceptor chatting with friends, orientee drowning, preceptor then reports to management that orientee is NOT READY for prime time.)

4. You are scum of the earth! What do they TEACH you people in nursing school today? Just observe my greatness!

I changed preceptors once already, as Evil preceptor (see points #3 and 4 above) basically made me feel incompetent. (sample remark after I failed in trying to start an IV on elderly lady with no veins--"You know, I would have been able to get that one.")

The key is to be VERY assertive with your educator or manager in getting the preceptors you want. I ended up with 2 pretty good preceptors, but their major problem is that I am ready to fly on my own, and they won't get out of my face--example: I am in the middle of writing nursing note on computer, and preceptor thinks it's time to turn the patient. (Gee, could I maybe set my own priorities on some of these non-life-threatening tasks? And besides, YOU are the one who was nagging me to write my note.) Or preceptor sends in an "experienced nurse" to start an IV, even though I need the practice, patient is 23, sedated, and has veins as big as the Lincoln tunnel (I actually threw all the "experienced nurses" out of the room, and started the IV successfully.)

The problem is this: Preceptors don't use the nursing process when orienting. They need to:

1. Assess the person they are precepting: skill level, learning styles, etc.

2/3. Diagnose/Plan: What does newbie need to work on? How should be accomplish that?

4. Implement the plan

5. Evaluate: Is everything working in our plan? What can we do differently?

I think there could be a major improvement in the precepting process, if:

1. Preceptors were trained

2. Preceptors were PAID MORE to do it

3. Precepting was spaced out (a lot of our nurses are really burned out on it, and I don't blame them).

Okay, I know that when I am precepting, I will have a totally different attitude. But this is my story for now, and I'm stickin' to it!

BTW, I am a new nurse, but have worked in other industries before, so I am not new to the working world.

Oldibutgoodie

I hated my first nursing job. And I started in my 40s, too. Part of it is the reality shock. Part of it was that I was on a really nasty, backbiting unit.

I changed jobs. I loved working emergency. I'm on sabbatical now for personal reasons, and not sure I'll go back to emergency or move on to something else.

You need to find your niche. That will help make the difficult parts more tolerable.

It's so nice to know I'm not alone out there on the--"hey...leave me alone for 5 seconds so I can organize my thoughts instead of focusing on you nagging me!!" Supposedly this too shall pass and we'll all be better for it in the end. Thanks for sharing!

Boy, I could write a book about preceptors. I am orienting to a critical care unit, at the end of a 6 month orientation. (Please, let's leave the discussion of new grads in the ICU for another thread.)

I have had so many bad preceptors, it is unbelieveable. Here is the run-down:

1. Watch me do this, but don't touch!

2. You can be my tech!

3. You can do everything! (patient in DIC, 6 doctors on consult to call, preceptor chatting with friends, orientee drowning, preceptor then reports to management that orientee is NOT READY for prime time.)

4. You are scum of the earth! What do they TEACH you people in nursing school today? Just observe my greatness!

I changed preceptors once already, as Evil preceptor (see points #3 and 4 above) basically made me feel incompetent. (sample remark after I failed in trying to start an IV on elderly lady with no veins--"You know, I would have been able to get that one.")

The key is to be VERY assertive with your educator or manager in getting the preceptors you want. I ended up with 2 pretty good preceptors, but their major problem is that I am ready to fly on my own, and they won't get out of my face--example: I am in the middle of writing nursing note on computer, and preceptor thinks it's time to turn the patient. (Gee, could I maybe set my own priorities on some of these non-life-threatening tasks? And besides, YOU are the one who was nagging me to write my note.) Or preceptor sends in an "experienced nurse" to start an IV, even though I need the practice, patient is 23, sedated, and has veins as big as the Lincoln tunnel (I actually threw all the "experienced nurses" out of the room, and started the IV successfully.)

The problem is this: Preceptors don't use the nursing process when orienting. They need to:

1. Assess the person they are precepting: skill level, learning styles, etc.

2/3. Diagnose/Plan: What does newbie need to work on? How should be accomplish that?

4. Implement the plan

5. Evaluate: Is everything working in our plan? What can we do differently?

I think there could be a major improvement in the precepting process, if:

1. Preceptors were trained

2. Preceptors were PAID MORE to do it

3. Precepting was spaced out (a lot of our nurses are really burned out on it, and I don't blame them).

Okay, I know that when I am precepting, I will have a totally different attitude. But this is my story for now, and I'm stickin' to it!

BTW, I am a new nurse, but have worked in other industries before, so I am not new to the working world.

Oldibutgoodie

Keep the preceptor stories coming. My preceptors were all ok except the last one who does alot of the type of thing posted above, especially the "why aren't you writing your note" and then when you are says "the pt needs turned NOW" or whatever other silly thing has crossed her mind. My previous preceptor had a nasty habit of saying "WHAT"S WRONG?" every time I tried to ask a question. I get turned loose tomorrow and things have been a bit better lately. I really appreciate all the advice as it helps me not to be so hard on myself. Keep it coming please! I knew I could count on you guys!:)

I'm also a new grad in my forties orienting. I really hate it. I have no idea if I am making acceptable progress and never hear anything except what I didn't do. I was never even shown where things were. I really hate what I'm doing but I've sent my sights on being there a year just to prove to myself that I can do it. I hope I don't find out on my last day of orientation that I suck. I guess I will be more proactive with requesting what I need and finding out if I am doing ok.

You are cerainly not alone. Just about all my friends from nursing school are miserable, as am I. We are all about 2-3 months into our first jobs and it is so much harder than any of us anticipated. What is frustrating me is I don't know how to help myself. I know that organization and prioritization is key, but how do I get there. How do I get organized?!?!? And I am terrified of the phone, everytime another dept calls or I have to call a doctor, they always ask me something I don't know. I try to stay on top of things, but I feel like it is impossible to know the patients entire chart when there is so much else going on. All nurses have told me it takes about 6 months - 1 year to feel better. I wish I could fast forward that time.

Wow! The preceptor stories I'm reading are frightening! I have an AWESOME preceptor. I'm also a new grad (41-yrs old, though), working in the ED. So as you can imagine, we get everything from MI's, to broken limbs, to chapped lips. (Yes, really!) I go from completely overwhelmed to thinking "I can do this!" Usually it's the former, though. Last nt I had to stick a 5-yr old boy w/butterfly to get blood. All the while, he was jerking and screaming. They don't teach you how to do that in nsg school!

And do you know how hard it is to do an in-out cath on a lady? You would think finding that hole would be easy, but it looks different on EVERYBODY! Really! And yes, I took anatomy, but still! I pray for em to have a tampon in so I can rule out a hole! ha! (Geez, this would be vulgar if you weren't a bunch of nurses reading this!)

To think I'm going to be responsible for 4-5 rooms in June scares me to death. I'm not nearly ready. Fortunately, they "precept" you for 12 weeks in the ED. I will probably take every week!

Good luck to all other newbies out there!

Jodi, RN