Setting yourself up

I am super excited about getting out there into the “real world” of nursing, but I definitely need to remember that I am still a student, and I am still learning. This is the time to do it. This is the part of my schooling where I get to be out there doing my nursey-thing, but also to be watched. To have someone backing me up, making sure I am doing things the right way. I think I got a few steps ahead of myself this week.

Maybe it’s the idea of working someplace I love and want to be, but I my first day of precepting left me feeling different than I thought I would. My preceptor is awesome, as I knew she would be, but I think I set my expectations for myself a bit high. Since I am already familiar with the unit, the dynamics of the nurses and the patients, and feel a bit comfortable with my skill level (or I did, before yesterday), I think I just sort of went into it thinking I knew what I was doing; but always one step ahead of myself. It still went well, nothing particularly intense happened. But it was the little things that tripped me up: clamping tubes, maneuvering the blood glucose strip just right to get the accurate reading. Those little things that I thought I had down, I realized were still a bit foreign to me.

It was just a sobering sort of experience, and not what I was expecting to feel. In retrospect it was good. I think I needed that proverbial slap in the face or palm to forehead moment to ground me, remind myself that “hey, you’re still a student! You’re still learning!”  I’m not a fan of not doing things right the first time (who is?), but that’s part of the learning process. Next week I will definitely be going in with my head high enough to see my goals, but not high enough to see that I’m there. I will take on the challenges of learning, and I will DEFINITELY grow from this experience.