I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason. As I try to put into words the gratitude I have for my preceptor, I could not think of lyrics more relevant than those from the song "For Good" from the Broadway play Wicked. If you asked me five months ago what I expected from my preceptor, I would have told you I expected to learn how to work as a nurse in labor and delivery. Fast-forward five months, and with tears as I write this, Jen has done so much more for me than help me learn to work in labor and delivery. Jen has given me some of the greatest life lessons, like how to make a mistake and learn from it. She has taught me how to ask for help when something just doesn't feel quite right. She has showed me to care for my patients with my whole heart, the way I would want someone to do for me. She's encouraged me to trust the instinct I never knew I had. Jen has helped me find who I've always wanted to be.
An incredible preceptor like Jen is someone who doesn't just teach and go home. She got to know me in my personal life, as exemplified in the Caritas Process 7, and would often ask how I was feeling about where we were in orientation. She began to see my strengths and my weaknesses, and she would discuss them with me in the least intimidating, most caring way possible. She wanted to help me to be a great nurse. We began joking around that she was my "work mom", but jokes aside that's truly what she was. She would watch me go off and care for my patients and she would be the first at my side when that patient turned into a stat C-Section. A good mother (preceptor) paves the path for the child (orientee), but is never quite so far away.
I'm quiet, and I know that. I get intimidated and I shut down. When I'm learning something new, I'm afraid to trust in myself that I've done it correctly or I'm making the right decision. Jen believed in me since the day she met me. She has built me up with encouragement, positive pep talks in the hallway, and even text messages after work to tell me I had a good day or did a good job. While dealing with her own husband, children, and some of life's curveballs, Jen never strayed from being my rock. Jen embodies Caritas Process 1, because she was always there for me. As the song tells, "we are led to those who help us most to grow", and she has been a constant source of support and love, and has uplifted me since the very beginning of my orientation.
I really am the luckiest person to have been paired with Jen. She was not only my preceptor; she was an incredible mentor who I will never stop looking up to. She is loving and caring, and she believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. She was the first person at this new job I could open up to and be myself around. I'll never be able to thank her enough for that. Now that I am off orientation and I get to work with her, I am still in awe every day that I get to watch her care for her patients. Jen is an amazing nurse, mentor, and one of my closest friends. Jen, "I know I'm who I am today, because I knew you."