Preceptorship – Day 1

Today was my first preceptorship day. I was nervous about my first day and did not sleep well at all last night. The day went better than I thought it would and I am so thankful. I had called my preceptor two days before, and the day before I was going to come in to work with her, but I never heard back from her with any kind of confirmation that she had gotten my messages. I came onto the unit this morning before my preceptor got there. One of the night nurses was very friendly to me and made me feel welcome. When my preceptor got there, she did not introduce herself to me – she only said a vague hello because the night nurse said I was her preceptor student. I was a little annoyed by the way she ignored me, but soon I decided that I was not going to be afraid to talk to her, because we had 12 hours to spend together. After I saw that she was settled and waiting on report, I went up to her and introduced myself. She was still a little cold towards me, but I didn’t let that bother me. I got report on our patients with her and asked her what her normal morning routine was and how I could help her. As we went around greeting the patients, I continued to make myself useful and asked her questions showing my interest in the work. Before long, she began to open up to me and get more comfortable around me. Throughout the day, she continued to become more open and friendly, and would volunteer information on the patients and show me where supplies were located. I found out during the shift, that my preceptor had previously had a bad experience with a student nurse who did not want to help her and who sat around at the desk all day talking and texting on her phone! That may explain why she was a little cold towards me at first. My parents were praying for me today all along, and I’m so glad that the Lord allowed her to change her attitude about me. It was an answer to prayer.

It ended up being a pretty good first day. I got to insert a foley catheter into one of the patients for the first time! My preceptor was there with me while I performed the insertion, but she never made me feel nervous or like I didn’t know what I was doing. I will be going for my second preceptorship day tomorrow. I think that my preceptor and I are going to get along fine, and that this will be a good experience for me. I know that the more I go and work the more comfortable I will feel about taking care of patients on my own and that encourages me.