Sitting on your hands

I'm sure some of you can really relate to this --- having to literally sit on your hands when you're orienting a new nurse. Especially when the new nurse is doing perfectly fine (albeit a little slower than you would be) on her own!

That was my day today. I was orienting a new nurse to L&D, but she was actually in her very last week of orientation. We (she) was running the triage unit today. She did an awesome job!

It was so incredibly hard to sit on my hands and not jump in and do things to "help" her with the patients. I admit, I did start two IVs, called a doc for her (fetal distress), and discharged one of the triage patients for her. I had to literally stop myself from doing more.

I am quite the "do"er type of nurse. I like to get my hands in there and take care of patients. I found myself straightening the triage center, putting equipment away, stocking the drawers with forms and chart packets, and generally walking away to get several cups of coffee. All in the name of staying out of the new nurse's hair while she did perfectly fine on her own.

I'm sure other nurses reading this are nodding their heads. They know exactly what I'm talking about! My job as her preceptor today was to basically be a reference person - someone to bounce ideas off of, and someone to be her secretary (putting in lab orders in the computer, running to get things for her as needed, basically - non-nursing functions). I was simply there to cover her back in case the $hit hit the fan.

It was actually a nice way to end the work week for me. Yes, the end of the work week, at least this week, was on a Tuesday. Off until the weekend!