First Day

For my first shift it was hard to know what to expect coming on to the unit.  I was nervous and excited to find my preceptor and to get to know them.  In all my clinical experiences working with other nurses'  it's been interesting to see how they go about their planning and how they use their time.  I was expecting to see how the time management was taken care of as well as how the unit worked together with the patient load.

We had five patients, four of which had PCA's.  This was good for me because I have not had any other experience with a PCA.  This gave me a great opportunity to get to know the system and regular charting of a PCA.  I expected to learn something different from each patient and feel like over the shift that I my confidence increased and that in turn helped me give better patient care.  My charting was getting faster but was still fairly slow compared to my preceptor.

During the first shift I wanted build trust with my preceptor and I feel I was able too.  I also wanted my preceptor to like me.  It may sound funny but I didn't just want to barge in and step on others toes.  As much as I want to learn I am making sure that I am still the student and showing that I am eager to learn as much as possible.  My preceptor is very knowledgeable and makes things look easy.  I felt comfortable in asking questions and my preceptor was able to effectively teach me and answer my questions.  I never felt like I was in the way and felt very welcome on the unit.