Sarah and Justine are back with part 2 or our preceptorship series. This episode goes over what a preceptor should bring to the table when it comes to training new nurses.
Justine:
I don’t know why, but I wanted to start this episode with, well, I have some sad news. It’s just Sarah and I today, its a joke, but it has been a minute since it’s been just us.
Sarah:
It’s true.
Justine:
And we’re finally coming [inaudible 00:01:03].
Sarah:
I’m excited about it.
Justine:
I know we have lists and lists of things.
Sarah:
I know. And we’re finally coming back with an episode that we promised we’d come back with of preceptorship part two.
Justine:
The last preceptor episode. We talked about what the preceptee could bring to the table, which was like an organic… It was very organic. We didn’t know it was going to go that way. The whole season, we talked about in the last episode, has been the professional responsibility that we have as nurses to continue to learn. And that maybe even sprung from the preceptee episode of What are you bringing to the table to help your learning? But this episode, we wanted to talk to the nurses that are precepting already or probably will be soon, and what you could bring to the table to help you guide your future colleagues, which I think sometimes we easily forget like, “Oh, I don’t want to precept,” but I’m like, “Dudes, you’re precepting the people are going to be right next to you, responding with you in an emergency.”
And I laugh sometimes because we are our preceptors a lot of the times. You are creating a mini you and that’s a lot of responsibility. And I don’t know if I’d want to create a mini me. That’s so not true. I’m a wonderful nurse, but in the sense of charting and all of that stuff, I have so much area of opportunity there, and I wouldn’t want anyone to have those downfalls that I have. But there’s a lot of things I would want a nurse to have in my qualities. But there are some things that drive people crazy.
Sarah:
Well, but I think that’s the thing about being a preceptor is that it does add to the level of expectation of the type of nurse that you are and holds you accountable to know your stuff and to represent obstetrics OB nursing well, and then do it the right way. Because otherwise you’re creating bad habits and you’re going to be somewhat responsible for those bad habits.
Justine:
All responsible.
Sarah:
Come from the preceptee.
Justine:
Yes, my preceptor, she’s all responsible for my bad habits. No, no. But I need the professional responsibility of myself to be like, “No, I’m going to get better at charting.” Now, I don’t know. I think I’m a lost cause.
Sarah:
You are not a… No one is a lost cause, honey. What’s your issue with charting, by the way? We digress.
Justine:
I will do the bare minimum. Bare minimum. And a lot of things I’m like, “Oh, I didn’t chart that. It’s not important. No one cares. It’s just for data collection, it’s not going to change anything.” That’s terrible. It’s not a thing. That should not be a thing. But there are things there, things I miss that I don’t go back. I’m not losing sleep over the things I missed. They’ll call me if they really care. It’s bad. Well, but it’s my lack of attention to detail too.
Sarah:
I mean, if there are things that you’re doing as your standard of care or your practice that you do with every single patient all the time, if it’s charted or not, and I mean really, you’re only charting for legal purposes. And there’s never been a case where I don’t ever take a blood pressure. I mean the blood pressure is going to be electronic. So let me think of another example. That I don’t turn my patient. I turn my patients. There’s no patient that will sit for an entire shift ever in the history of my practice. So the fact that it’s not charted, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen because there’s literally just standard.
Justine:
Well, and those kinds of things I will chart. I actually enjoy flow chart, that kind of charting versus all the admission charting. I’ll chart it, but they’re things I miss in the admission charting. But I also work on a unit that if you get a patient from triage, everything’s done. So all their admission charting’s done, their IV is started, all those things. So you get used to it.
Sarah:
We just don’t want you in triage.
Justine:
Oh, no, no, no. I tell its nurses all the time, those amazing triage nurses that you read back and you’re like, “I know exactly why that patient was here last time. They’ve explained it to me well.” And they will see mine. And I’m sure they’re like, “Oh no, Justine, I have no idea why this patient was here that time.” I’m being too hard on myself. It’s not that bad. It’s not that bad. But there are just some things that I, and I was talking to Sarah a little bit on the side, before we started this episode, I think it’s imposter syndrome when it comes to preceptorship, which is wild because of my job here as bundle birth nurses. But there’s a lot of pressure in precepting. You want to do so good. And it would really suck to be a bad preceptor, I think. And I would hate for them to go home and be like, “Ugh, I hate my preceptor.” Or talk about like they’re just awful. I don’t think that’s happening. I guess it’s good I hold so much weight on it. It’s important.
Sarah:
Yeah, I mean I cannot imagine that that’s what they’re saying. You’re also a clinical prof or instructor and they love you. So I think you are being too hard on yourself, but what a perfect transition into our conversation about how to be a good preceptor. Because if you’re doing a lot of the things that you actually said, so Justine put out a poll on Instagram of what makes a good preceptor. And we have the list here we’re going to talk through. If you’re doing these things, you’re doing it. And I think first of all, we need to acknowledge that the preparations that the hospital gives in precepting is not the best. It’s not standardized whatsoever.
I mean, we all know this, but they overwork our preceptors or our good nurses are of course the ones that get pulled to precept, and it is more work. It is more tiring. If you’re having back to back nurses that you’re precepting the whole way through, that is tiring and it’s going to wear you down. And so there is a system-wide responsibility that sits here to not overwork our preceptors, to compensate the preceptor and treat them well, because likely they are your exemplary nurse that does set the standard and does train up those younger nurses.
Justine:
Amen to that. And also when you said it’s a lot of work, I was literally mouthing so much work, but it’s so much work in the beginning, but if you do a good job at the beginning, then your life gets so much easier. So much easier.
Sarah:
Then you’re just chilling. It all balances out.
Justine:
[inaudible 00:07:19]. So night shift preceptors always, usually, not always, usually, but usually have an advantage because they’ve done their day shift time and then they go to nights and they’re basically little functioning nurses and it’s like, “Oh, this is great. You’re just helping me.”
Sarah:
So true.
Justine:
But if you are one of the nurses starting on nights for your preceptorship or you start on days, the first batch, and especially with a new grad, that’s tough.
Sarah:
Oh yeah, yeah.
Justine:
Doable. We were both new grads in L and D, and look at us now. But it’s tough. So yeah, speaking of that list, I think one of the things I hear often is consistency with preceptors and a lot of things… You can’t control that oftentimes. If your preceptee can stay with you or not, but you can control making sure the person making assignments knows that you have a preceptee and what you guys need. And so maybe you’re usually in triage, but you have a preceptee now, and so you’re like, “No, I need to do labor. You got to put someone else in triage. I can’t be your default.” And advocating for that instead of being like… I’ve seen nurses like, “Oh, I’m in triage, sorry.” And then the nurse is hanging out to dry. So that’s one thing.
Sarah:
Right, and taking responsibility for your preceptee. They’re already feeling like a deer in the headlights. They’re already feeling overwhelmed, probably crying at home. At least I was. And for you to be that welcoming face, and actually whether you like it or not, you’re going to have to… If you are set to precept, whether you have a good attitude about it outwardly doesn’t really matter, because you’re going to have to precept anyway. And for your preceptee who’s already feeling overwhelmed and insecure, to now know that you don’t want to be there, is not helpful. So that’s my first tip for preceptors is, watch your face, set your expectation. And it’s not your preceptee’s responsibility that management maybe didn’t ask you or didn’t set you up with the tools that you needed to be a good preceptor. That should not be the preceptee’s responsibility. There’s a lot of preceptee preceptor happening. I hope I’m saying it right, my God.
Justine:
And too, how would you want to be treated? It comes down to do the right thing. Would you want someone that’s just… Was mad the whole time and say you did have someone that was that way, it doesn’t mean it was the right thing. So that’s a great point, Sarah.
Sarah:
Well, when I look at this list, I’m so much of this, it’s interpersonal kindness and that’s very sad to say, but I’m looking at words of encouragement, talking through things, support, what didn’t help them is their way or the highway, gossiping, not explaining things, acting like I was stupid. Not explaining the why, being disrespectful. Hello. If you are a preceptor right now, I’m going to get on my soapbox and be better. The fact, I’m sorry that we are grown and we are treating people poorly without kindness, do you want to be an unkind person? Because that’s what it turns out to be when these sweet new nurses are coming in energized and excited and you are stealing the light from their lives.
We have to be better. That just is… I mean, honestly, I just think it’s so pathetic. And I know that we… I’m not always nice. I say mean things. I don’t mean them in my heart. I’m a lot more talk than I am action on that, but I think this is where we have to be doing the internal work to self-regulate and identify, “Am I taking this out on them? Is this their issue?” We got to be in therapy. My God, this is a deeper humanity issue of a lack of kindness and empathy, and it’s not their fault that you’re tired.
Justine:
Okay, so my question to you now, because this is a really good point you bring up, but would you agree most people listening to this podcast aren’t those people? So then…
Sarah:
I don’t know. I don’t know. Not necessarily, no.
Justine:
But then I’m wondering, how can we have…
Sarah:
I think we are all guilty of writing each other’s story. That’s why it’s become such a trademark of us. I mean, I’m guilty of this. I write my own story. I write everybody else’s story. And the whole point of why we talk about that being so important around here is we’re human. And our natural inclination is to be frustrated and to be negative and to… I mean, I am a talker. If there’s something going on… Brian said this the other day, he was, “At least we know what’s going on in your head.” Because truly I externalize everything. I have to be very careful about that. And it doesn’t always come out… It comes out very honest, but it doesn’t always come out really what my soul means.
I may be like, “Oh, that is so stupid.” I mean, you’re hearing me now. I’m like, ” [inaudible 00:12:15]” I’m feisty about this, but does that mean that I hate every preceptor that’s unkind? No, I just think we can be better. So of course, I think that people who are engaged with this podcast are the types that are they want to be better. They want to learn and grow. Or maybe they’re bored on their way to work and they’re like, “Oh, they’re kind of fun and interesting.” But I think that every single one of us, no matter how perfect you think you are, none of us are perfect in this. We can all be nicer and kinder and we can all watch our attitudes of how… Even just the side eye or the grumble, those things for somebody coming on that’s new, they affect them. And there is an energetic component of you know when… It happened this morning, I’m looking at Brian, I’m like, “This is my coworker that…” I’m like, “Why is…”
There’s an elephant in the room. I don’t know what it is. I have a sick pit. Did I do something wrong? Why is he so irritated about nothing? I was not… There’s no one else in the office and you’re irritated? And I can internalize that. And I did. I’m sensitive to that energy. And of course we talked about it and then flipped his and he was like, “I don’t know.” And then he was like, “Oh no, I think I’m just distracted by this.” And I was like, “Okay.” And we’re done. But we all… Because we’re working and living together in such close quarters in high stress environments with high stakes environments, with various personalities, various hierarchical systems issues in the hospital, I do think this is an issue. That was my very long answer to what you thought was going to be a short one.
Justine:
Okay. That’s okay. Everything you say is great. Okay. That’s a great point.
Sarah:
That’s really nice of you.
Justine:
Why?
Sarah:
Everything you say…
Justine:
Everything you say. The external processing can be a little challenging sometimes, but most of the time, not you, but okay, so that’s a good point. I have a question for you though, Sarah, because you led a peer mentorship program at your hospital. I know that. So you have, I feel like, and you’re such a system sinker, which I am not. And so what are some tips you have for one of the things that nurses wrote in are clear expectations and goals. What are some tips that you have to help a new grad? Let’s say a preceptor precept a new grad when they come in, setting clear expectations and goals and growing from them, checking in with them. What does that process look like without making it way more work, and then also time wise, it has to be pretty quick because shifts are busy.
Sarah:
I see it as parenting a little bit. Not that I’m a parent, but it is. It’s like you start with an infant that literally eats and sleeps and pees and poops and then you eventually raise an adult that is let out onto the world. It’s very quick parenting. And so I think the most important missed piece is really getting to know your preceptee. I think there is a humanity piece that if you connect on that first day, you ask them a little bit about themselves, you understand what their training is, how comfortable and confident do… What have they done ahead of time. This could be 10 minutes. Let me get a baseline, because my job is to help bring you from here to there. I can compare this to my current state right now of building out a business of, we’re growing a team.
We just hired three people this week full-time to start in June, and so I can do nursing things and I can create preceptorship programs, because I do actually have one in my head. So anyway, I think you have to get to know them. I think you need to connect on a heart level. I think you need to… Your primary job as the preceptor is to be super engaged with paying attention and getting to know your preceptee because, and that means, “Did this work for you? Did this work for you? When this happened, how would you have preferred us to have that conversation? I know we did it outside the room, but would you have preferred to have it loosely at the bedside?” There are conversations that can be had at the bedside. “Would you like me to model this first or would you like to try it and then we can talk about it later and I can jump in.”
There’s an exploration phase that takes place in the beginning. And mind you, there’s stages of precepting too. Day one, they’re just following you around and you’re explaining everything that you do. But it’s like… There’s an element of that you have to get to know your person. And if you’re just trying to power through with no system, know this, it’s like, “Oh, we’ll start here and then we’ll… I guess we’re in a C-section and they’ll just figure it out.” There would be a way for you to help organize their learning to say it. I remember when I precepted, it was like, “We’re going to work on charting today and all I want you to do is chart,” and this is where you need enough shifts to be able to progress in that way so they can give their full attention.
Our brains are not designed to carry as many things as that are coming into our brains every single day. There’s actually… What is the book? I shouldn’t even quote it because I cannot remember the title of this book, but that’s basically about multitasking and how we have to start pulling back. And so if you give those little things that once you learn your preceptee, it’s where’s their bigot? Where do you have to get them by the end of this shift, and this shift… But it creates some intention right? By the end of this shift, I want them to be able to navigate the flow sheet and chart throughout the shift. And you do that. And then the next day it’s like, “Okay, we got that. Where do you feel like you got it and where do you feel like you don’t got it?”
“I really don’t feel comfortable with the admission screens, but the flow charting of… If I’m charting on the tracing, I feel great about charting on the tracing. I did went through and I did my own advanced fetal monitoring classes. So I feel really good about fetal monitoring.” Great. If you know that about them, then you’re checking that. But you’re moving on from the fetal monitoring side and you’re having conversations in the unique circumstance that there’s a weird tracing or “Oh, this is new. Oh, are these lates variables? Let’s talk it through.” Of course, but otherwise, then you’re shifting your attention. Then I’m going to look for an admission screen for you to build off of while it’s fresh in your brain. And we’ll make sure that you get a couple admissions today to work that through. And then we’re building off of that.
But it’s like this open communication. People aren’t talking to each other. You’re not trying to learn each other. It’s just throw you into the wolves and… Both of you, and you’re not knowing where you’re going with it, but your preceptee also doesn’t really know how to guide the situation. So all that being said, I think it has to be dosed out. I think in the same lines of parenting that you get to know them, you start with a skill wherever you’re assigned and you do labor and you have to be debriefing and you have to be giving feedback. That also requires the preceptee, sorry, that also requires the preceptor to ask how do you receive feedback best? “Do you like me to give it to you straight? Do you need a compliment sandwich? Do you need to be at the end of the day?”
And the expectation setting from the beginning. So it’s not a surprise for them that I will be giving you feedback and I do not expect you to be perfect now or ever, really. I don’t ever expect anyone to be perfect, but I don’t expect you to know this stuff. And if you don’t know it, I need you to tell me so that we can get you there. This is a part of the learning and this is your opportunity to learn and grow in a case where I’m expecting you to not know it. Eventually I’m going to expect you to know what a normal range blood pressure is or a severe range and be able to lay that out for me, but that’s where… Expect to receive feedback. How are you going to receive feedback best? What works for you? And if it is, I would like to talk through the shift and debrief the shift.
You’re going to need to work in that at the end of… You’re working ahead, and obviously there are certain cases where they’re delivering is the change of shift, like blah, blah, blah, whatever. But you’re working ahead so that you’re foley is emptied 30 minutes prior instead of right before the end of the shift so that you could step away for 15 minutes and talk through the shift and you’re paying attention. And this also requires the preceptor to be paying attention to that was not totally great.
And maybe you addressed it in person, but you want to review in a non-punitive, safe, non-bedside, non-high stress environment of, “Hey, this is what I want you to work on. I noticed that in your intake you missed 30% of the questions. Tomorrow I’m going to get you some intakes, and I expect that they’re fully filled out next time”. So again, I’m ranting here. I definitely have a precepting course in my head on this one. I have a lot of courses in my head, so no promises on whether or not you’ll ever see it, but that’s how my brain works. So I don’t know if that answered your question, but to get us started.
Justine:
No, those are good tips. Great tips. And when you said the debriefing, I will say, as a clinical instructor, I let my students know that I will never, ever correct you in a negative way in front of the patient. Unless I see you doing something unsafe will I intervene, and it wouldn’t be like, “Oh, what are you doing?” It’ll be like, my hand will come and if my hand goes in… I’m thinking foley placement. And then when we come out of the room, I’ll say, “How do you think that went for you?” And that could be easily put into the preceptor, new grad role. How did that go? And let them reflect first because they might bring up what they did. I gave an IM injection on postpartum when I was in school without gloves and it… I’m holding the site and I gave the injection. And I remember when I gave it, I looked at my hands and I was like, “Oh no.”
And we walk out of the room and my teacher was like, “So how’d that go for you?” I was like, “I didn’t have gloves on.” And she was like, “Okay, as long as you know and you understood.” She didn’t write me up for it. But there are some things where you might not even need to point it out because they might bring it up, which would be even better if they’re bringing it up. They don’t think you’re harping on them. I do think that, Sarah, you would be a very intimidating preceptor.
Sarah:
1,000,000%. Yes. Side note, one of my very good friends, I’m not going to say her name for her sake, but she broke her foot. Anybody that’s ever worked with me knows exactly who this is. She broke her foot and was out for a year, but she had experience, she’s not new grad, new whatever. They gave her to me when she came back to precept her for three shifts. And she was talking to one of the other nurses that was saying, “I’m…” And they were like, “Oh, who are you going to precept with?” And they’re like, “Sarah.” And she’s like, “Oh.” She’s like, “What do you mean?” And so she came in and now we’re like… She’s one of my best friends ever, but she was like, “Oh, I was so scared of you. Every shift, I was so scared of you.” I’m intense. I am, for sure. I mean fun and all. Balance it. And I’m not mean, and I’m not not out to get you. I’m very respectful, but I do have high standards and no, that’s not it.
Justine:
Yeah, no I would…
Sarah:
Well, and again, it’s easier said than done because there’s so many interpersonal dynamics that happen in the moment and there’s so many variables in life, but particularly labor and delivery were like, “Okay, we said to talk about it outside the room” or that you’re not going to say something in the moment, but you’re watching something unsafe happen and it comes out like, “Stop.” I apologize, that was maybe not the best way to handle it, but there has to be grace both ways. That you’re doing your best and there’s a lot of fluid interpersonal stuff going on that I think affects… It’s easier to talk about it now and be like, “Oh, do this,” but in reality it’s not always going to happen so perfectly.
Justine:
So true. Okay, two more things I want to bring up, because I think they’re important. I wanted to remind people, and we’ve talked a little bit about this with I think Lisa Miller and Jen Atkinson of just remembering that OB is not talked about much in school anymore. And the trend is that the NCLEX itself doesn’t focus on OB, and so a lot of schools have even talked about getting rid of OB in general, all of it. Just like we don’t really have a NICU rotation, right? Because the NCLEX doesn’t talk about NICU. And so it might be one of those specialties, and giving grace to these students coming out of programs that may have gotten so little.
I got four weeks and I know Sarah got six months. But that’s just an example of what that is. So having grace for those students, knowing that, and then there is something I hate. I hate it, Sarah. I hate it so much. And I think we’ve talked about it, and I don’t remember your opinion, but I hate when nurses talk about nurses not being able to hack it because of how their training’s going.
Sarah:
Oh.
Justine:
It drives me crazy and it makes me so mad for those nurses. And I remember being so scared that they were going to extend my orientation, and I wish now I could have extended it myself. When I got off at 16 weeks, I was like, “Okay, I made it.” But I’m like, “No, I wish I would’ve had 20 or 24 or give me a whole year at this point.” It’s just this culture of if you’re not going to be able to hack it, and it’s this… It’s so awful and I don’t like it. So what are your thoughts? Do you agree? I’m assuming.
Sarah:
I’m not stupid. I’m learning. Of course, I agree with that. Who are you to judge whether they can hack it or not? Honestly, anybody can make it in OB if they try hard enough. So unless you’re seeing zero effort, then they can hack it. But how often too, I wonder how many of these nurses listening, are the ones that somebody said they wouldn’t make it, and here they are. Who do you think you are? We are so mean. So mean.
Justine:
So mean, and I don’t know… Or if they’re super nice, they’re going to be like, “Oh, they’re never going to make it.” Or if they’re super, they love what they do, they’re so passionate, “Oh, that’ll change,” right? People said that about us. And I think it’s because OB is hard and we’ve talked about that and it can harden your heart a little bit. And that’s their issues talking. Maybe they were once excited and now they’re not. So they’re projecting that on others. But that language has to stop. Everyone can hack it. It’s going to be fine. They just might need more time. Like you said our brain can’t process everything we’re given at once and they didn’t get it in school. And it’s a whole special OB, postpartum, baby, OR, ER, PACU like we talked about. It’s all these specialties in one. That’s a lot for 16, 20 weeks. I also can’t hack it then. Just kidding. It’s hard.
Sarah:
I feel like a lot of times I can’t hack much.
Justine:
Just let them be. Give them more support then. So anyways, yep.
Sarah:
I think one of the biggest things that I think about is you have to take responsibility for their learning experiences. It’s not the preceptee’s responsibility to find the learning. I mentioned this of doing the intake for instance, or charting an intake. I’m going to get… I will find you three… What nurse doesn’t also their intake to be done. They know how to do it, they don’t need to do it. And so I’m going to find that for you. I will cover the other patient. Nothing’s happening here. She needs to be turned and get her some water and do maybe a little bit of education that… Let me go find you an intake to do with someone else so that you can see that, oh, there’s something going on in the OR. Why don’t you go over there?
Oh, they’re in the PACU and they need extra hands. Go be extra hands. And that you have to be loyal to your patient only. I love that. And I think there definitely is necessary to see the whole process, but also for a lot of these orientations, they are so short that the more learning opportunities that you give them to observe, the better they’re going to be. And how often I hear all… Actually, I hear all the time that these nurses of, “I never saw that on orientation” or “I never did that. I did one birth.” “You had one birth in the 16 weeks of shifts that happened at your hospital? What?” No, no. Even if you’re not primary that you can go in and be extra hands or you’re going to be the baby nurse for that birth. And you ask the other nurse to watch your patient who’s taking a nap that you have to be managing and charge nursing their learning experience to help them to at least see it and then help them debrief it.
You have to help make sense in their brain of what’s going on and obviously be available for questions. But I remember doing a lot of just talk through. That, “Okay, so when this happened, what was going on in your brain? Do you know why this?” And I would warn people that I would quiz them, but it was like, “If you don’t know, I don’t expect you to know anything.” And I would say that all the time, “I don’t expect you to know anything. So when I’m asking you a question, do your best to answer the…” And once they knew that, it was like you saw the weight lifted of like, “Oh, I can just explore. I just get to…” And if I’m like, “Well, no, that’s not the answer. Actually it’s this and here’s why. And let me help you see why.” And then one of my favorites actually, now that I’m thinking about it, was we would talk about something, so this high risk condition and I would teach it to them and then they get to go teach it to the patient.
So what pieces of this does the patient need to know? And then you’ve already modeled for them and then they get to internalize. Because the best way of learning is to teach back, right? It’s like once you teach it, you become the expert. So when we talk about mag, let’s talk about mag outside the room, I’m going to talk you through the whole thing. This is your first time hanging it. We will hang it together. The patient knows that this is your first time, but I’m here watching it. But when we go in, I’m going to have you do the patient education based on what you heard. What did you hear? What are your key components for patient ed? They have some time to explore, and then we go in the room and they teach the patient.
Justine:
The moral of a story, is be a good person, but then also take responsibility for this position that you are now in as the preceptor. And like we said in the beginning, we told the preceptees, you have to have a responsibility. And also as a preceptor, you’re not out of… You’re not clear. You also have to. You need to make sure that you understand how to communicate with people. Like you said, “Fix your face.” Are you walking around with an angry face? Are you constantly complaining at the station about your unit? Are you just full of a negative vibe? Because that sucks if you’re going to have to precept someone. Setting goals and expectations. I know I’m a paper person, so honestly, when you were talking that through, I’d probably have it written down, what did we work on today? Because I would forget that shift to shift.
And so figuring out what that looks like for you and your preceptee. I think what you said about the exploration stage is money. That’s great. You’re right. You need to explore how they take criticism, how they want to learn, what they want. And then also, not only is it good for you, but it makes them feel like, “Oh, they really care.” And so this is a relationship you’re going to have. You’re going to have this person attached to your hip for a while. You might as well get to know them and build a relationship. And then also, again, they are your person, when they’re off orientation, these are the nurses that maybe they’re working a different shift, but they’re going to be giving you a rapport. They’re going to be taking care of the patients after you, or you’re going to be with them in an emergency, so don’t take it lightly.
Sarah:
Not to come down super hard again, but I think too, it’s easy to be like, “Well, they’re not paying me for this.” You’re on the clock. You’re there to work. I know we all want to be lazy and we all want to work smarter, not harder, but you are there as an employee of the hospital, and if they have asked you to do this, you’re on the clock. I hope that they compensate you for it. I really do. I think that it’s worth compensating. I hope you’re getting more than a dollar an hour, but I know most people get about that, maybe less and that doesn’t totally feel worth it.
But also you’re there to be a part of a unit culture. You’re there to contribute to the growth of that hospital unit and to the safety of patients in the future. It’s like this is one of those self-regulating stuff of, if you don’t like it, you’ve signed up for it. So it’s like the doctors we call in the middle of the night, you can be upset, but don’t take it out on me because you knew what this job was and we have to be just as accountable to the fact that you’re on the clock. Love you.
Justine:
For spending your time with us here on this episode of Happy Hour with Bumble Birth Nurses. If you like what you heard, it helps us both if you subscribe, rate, leave a raving review or share this episode with a friend. If you want more from us, you can head to bumblebirthnurses.com or follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
Sarah:
Now it’s your turn to go and just be kind to one another. Put yourself in their shoes. Don’t write their story. Treat them with respect and help grow the future generation of labor and delivery nursing. We’ll see you next time.