Didn’t know how to handle it except to say, “Well, I guess I’ll try harder.”

On a side note, I love this blog!

I was a PCA on the renal/telemetry floor the last three months I was in school for my BSN. At the time I graduated and took my boards, my nurse manager was out of town and I was assigned to work with many women during my official preceptorship.
Nothing went well. I was prepared to learn what I needed to know to nurse. I was prepared to act as a professional.
I was unprepared for the nasty talk on the floor. The lady who talked openly about her affairs, drinking all night and swimming naked in fountains, hearing this end of the phone calls from her friends who were being chased by police, etc…
I was appalled and learning not one thing about nursing professionally. I complained to HR, since my nurse manager was out of town.
I was assigned to many different people to train me. When my nurse manager came back into town, I was called into her office and told that there was no one else to put me with since no one liked me and i had made so many disasterous mistakes.
For example, my patient was prescribed an im med, but my preceptor had me give it iv, and fill out an incident report, and I was held totally responsible for doing this error, even though I didn’t think I could challenge my preceptor, after all, what do i know as a new grad?
Then, a vial of medicine that needed to be opened and reconstituted was unfamiliar to me, so I asked my preceptor how to open it sinece the dose was due first thing in the shift. However, the way my nm told me, I had never asked how to open it, therefore hadn’t given it, until eight hours into the shift. Pure malarky.
Then I was charting at the computer and casually talking about I wondered who the guinea pig was that caused ‘them’ to figure out that it takes 10ml of air in the line in order to hurt someone. Which, was reported to my nm as I thought it was OK to give 10 ml of air. Which EVERYBODY knows you just don’t do. In any case, I began to be hazed by not just the preceptors, but others on the floor as well, the ancillary staff.
The last straw was getting called into the director of nursing’s office to discuss the hostile work environment that I was facing and was told to come up with a plan of action. I immediately recognized this as a no win situation, walked right over to hr and turned in my badge. Even though the hospital is two miles from my home, I never looked back. I never go there for care. I don’t recommend it to anyone. And now I work for a World Famous Hospital and am espeically valued there. I do the precepting. I serve on two committees. I love my coworkers and my job. I love my city life. I love my country life. And I’ll never forget how f’ed up my first job out of school was. I think I’m a better preceptor because of it. It really is a shame that nurses eat their young. I remember crying and throwing up before and after work. And I’m glad I didn’t put up with