Curious on how best to take advantage of your preceptors’ nursing knowledge? When I found myself in my preceptorship in my last semester of nursing school and then again at my new graduate RN job, I didn’t know how to best take advantage of all my preceptors’ nursing knowledge. The following are some tips to know going into your preceptorship!
Ask Questions
During your preceptorship it’s the perfect time to ask any and all questions you can possibly think of; even if you think they are dumb or that you should probably already know the answer. This is your time to learn! You’d much rather ask the question now then have to ask it of your manager later on. Your preceptor knows that you don’t know everything! So humble yourself in this fact and ask away!
Also be sure to visit the Nursing Fundamentals Series for A Guide to the Complete Healthcare Team, Delegation and the Nursing Process, A Guide to Infection Control, and more!
Learn the Charting System
Any downtime you might have during your preceptorship is a great time to really dive into the charting system. Each hospital uses a different charting system that makes for a learning curve which is why during your preceptorship is the perfect time to learn! Watch how your preceptor charts and see how they manage the system. Where do they start? Do they input the assessment first and make their note at the end of their shift or the beginning? Do they write the information down on their ‘brain’ before transferring it into the computer system? Oftentimes there’s more than one way to get to the tab you want, and they can help teach you this. By learning the system now, you won’t be as confused by it later on. Especially when you’re trying to manage five patients on your own.
Follow Your Patients to Their Procedures
Now is probably one of the last times you are going to be able to follow your patients throughout the hospital to their various procedures. Once you are working on your own, you’re going to have other patients under your care that you can’t leave to go watch how an angiogram is performed. So take this time and opportunity to see all sorts of procedures in different parts of the hospital. Doing this will help you better understand certain procedures so when your patients ask you, you can explain the procedure and better reassure them. By doing so you can also see what different areas of the hospital might be of interest to you!
Be Honest About Your Skills
Most students fresh out of nursing school aren’t especially confident in all their nursing skills. IV insertion might still be something you struggle with. Or maybe you’ve only ever been able to do one foley catheter and you know the clinical steps but haven’t mastered the execution. Maybe wound care is something you still haven’t gotten the chance to do. During your preceptorship is the best time as any to learn!
Understand Your Preceptors Workflow
Every nurse has their own workflow. And as a new nurse it will take time and different approaches to find what works best for you. When I first started out, I didn’t even think to ask this of my preceptor and it’s something I wish I had. It’s your agenda for your shift and it’s pure gold.
Of course, not every shift if going to go exactly as planned, but having an outline for the day is super important. Especially when juggling five patients. Asking to see how your preceptor plans his/her shift is going to be really helpful in understanding their train of thought. It will also help you map out what your agenda is going to be once you’re on your own.
For more tips and tricks on workflow, check out the posts below!
Take Notes
Just as your clinical instructors taught you, take notes! Every hospital is going to have different policies, but the nursing basics are going to be the same universally. If you see a sign at your clinical site that has a good pneumonic for something like foley care, and the sign just makes sense, write it down so you can reference it later!
If you’re able to witness a code or a rapid response during your preceptorship, take a moment to reflect on the code/rapid with your preceptor. Then ask for a few minutes to go and write down everything you just saw. You can break it down into things that went well, things you think didn’t go so great, and something you can take with you into your future practice. Often times after a code or a significant event, there will be a debriefing. So even when you’re a nurse and you’re on your own, you’ll be able to take the time again to reflect and improve.
And always take notes when calling the doctor. Especially as a new nurse, you’re not going to be able to input new orders into the computer system fast enough. So be sure to write down any new orders the doctor wants and repeat the orders back to make sure you have everything written down correctly.
For more info on how to take new order notes, check out the posts below.
Take Initiative
At the end of your preceptorship, no matter how long it might be, you’re going to be on your own, taking care of your own patients. So by starting off with taking initiative, you’ll be better prepared in the end.
Typically in an internship program at a new job, you will be given a preceptor for a specific amount of time. Then once you’re done and proven yourself, you will be given a full load of patients. During your preceptorship, your preceptor and you will be assigned a full load, but your preceptor will only give you a few of those patients to focus on. In the beginning you’ll only be able to take on one or two patients and usually you choose the easier patients to get your feet wet (I know I did).
But I wish someone had of encouraged me to choose the more difficult patients. And to take one more patient than maybe I felt comfortable with earlier on. Because at the end of the day, you still have a preceptor to fall back on and use as your safety net. If you think you can handle four patients but then become super busy with one and you can only end up taking on three, that’s totally okay. Just communicate this with your preceptor and talk it through so next time you’re more successful when taking on four patients.
Towards the end of your preceptorship, you should really be taking on the full patient load without much help from your preceptor. A few questions here and there is totally normal. Even when you’re on your own there will still be a team of nurses surrounding you to ask questions and think things thru with!
Also take advantage of this time with your preceptor to work on your bedside handoff report (aka BHR). Every nurse has a slightly different way they deliver their BHR but they all include the same essential patient information. So listen to your preceptor give their handoff and adapt your own from it. See the post below for more BHR info.
Believe in Yourself
At the end of the day, you went to nursing school, you passed the NCLEX, and you’re ready for this new adventure! So believe in yourself! There’s no way you’re going to know everything right off the bat. And as a new nurse, and no one expects you to! Remember this and ask questions. Learn the charting. See different procedures. Get those skills down. Figure out your workflow. Take notes. And take initiative! You’re going to be great!
And if you’re starting out on nights, check out these two posts for more information!
Have more thoughts on how to get the most out of your preceptorship? Comment below!
Plus be sure to visit Gift Ideas for Your Nurse Preceptor!