Start of Video
Kara Murphy (0:00)
We’re on live. Hello! Hey, how are you?
Kaye Mendoza (0:09)
I’m doing well, Kara. How are you doing today?
Kara Murphy (0:12)
I am doing wonderful. I’m so excited to have some time with you today. I have the privilege to spend time with, who has, gosh, you have an extensive background in nursing experience. You’re also an educator and an influencer in nursing.
And I’ve just been amazed at how you support internationally educated nurses. And on top of it, you’re like this great mom, and just somebody I love spending time with. And I always learn something from you. So thank you for the time today.
And, you know, Kaye, we were, we were chatting and talking about just this dynamic healthcare landscape and how we integrate internationally educated nurses into the clinical environment is so essential in the collaboration and that exchange of expertise as nurses are coming over and, you know, kind of central to this integration is that relationship between the nurses and their preceptors, which really holds this, you know, promise of fostering professional growth and enhancing patient care and bridging diverse health care approaches, which is really exciting.
And as we kind of navigate through this process, it really becomes imperative for internationally educated nurses to engage in that relationship with their preceptor and, you know, leveraging it as this golden opportunity to learn and adapt and excel once they come over.
And so I, you know, I always hear these questions like, “How can these nurses maximize the value derived from their interactions with their preceptors?” And “how can they really transform that mentorship into knowledge, skill, acquisition, culture exchange”, so there’s just like, so much to that whole preceptor relationship. And so okay, I am sure everybody is as excited as I am to get some time with you.
So I can’t wait to just hear some of your advice.
Kaye Mendoza (2:08)
Oh, thank you so much for having me, it’s very important to understand both sides, and I’m very grateful for the experience that I have gone for the past 17 years transitioning. I think that’s one of the hardest part A person will have to go through is transitioning to their new roles.
Maybe a nurse, may be a manager, or a director or any part of it’s just getting transition, with the word transition, it’s sometimes very stressful in somebody’s life. Moving is the number, one most stressful event in somebody’s life, and an international nurse coming to a new place with new culture, new society, new everything is just probably one of the most, you know, brain wrecking, you know, event in her life and having the support there by the employer.
And as well as the guidance that the nurses will get, creates the success in both sides, in my opinion.
Kara Murphy (3:07)
Yeah, that’s great. So what are some of the recommendations you give to internationally educated nurses? Or really, we should say health care professionals, because there’s others that are coming over here that go through the same preceptorship. So what are some of your recommendations?
Kaye Mendoza (3:21)
My recommendation is, as a person who has gone through orientation, next, next you know, every three months, technically, or transfer is number one rule. Do what the Romans do in Rome. Technically.
It’s not hard to be respectful of the new environment that you’re walking in. Just respect, you know, that is their house, you are the one of their guests that is going to be eventually a part of your family eventually, right?
So, do what the Romans do in Rome is the number one rule of a person coming into a new place, you don’t come in there, and tell them how to do things that will create a block already in your relationship.
So when you’re starting to a new place, I would recommend definitely to be observant first, see how to rooms do it in room, right. And it does not mean that you’re going to follow every single thing that they’re doing, even if it’s wrong, you know, up to them, they have been there for many years, and you want to start off with by respecting their practice, their home, and who they are.
I know a lot of people have come from different parts of the world and will have experience and when you come into the new place, telling them how, you know, this is how we do it in the Middle East. This is how we do it in the UK. This is how we do it in Australia.
It’s not going to help the relationship, okay? But it’s nice to have those experiences on your end. So you can compare the different practices and craft your own best practice on your own.
You know, for me I mean, I start every time I start in a new place. I look at, you know how people do it differently. And I just observe it and mind you, there’s only one procedure, but people will do it 100 different ways, and it’s okay. Okay, and it’s totally okay.
Some people have their own routine, it comes off with personality, you know, that. This is how they were, you know, this is how they were raised up. That is actually, you know, a very tight process.
But some people like Millennials like me, and probably you guys coming to the United States, probably I, you know, there’s five steps, can I do it in three steps so that it’s gonna create the same outcome.
You know, millennials are triggered to be creative. You know, as far as compared to before our baby boomers, you know, this is the rule, you gotta have the five following. You know, that’s how I was raised in the Philippines, you know, this is the rule, this is the only way to do it, and you’re going to have to follow it.
And it’s totally fine. But now there’s a different generation coming in, I think it’s most really important there, it’s respecting each other’s practice, as long as it’s in safe practice. But first, observe. Observe first,
Kara Murphy (6:11)
Okay, so I definitely hear like, this observing everybody brings in their own experiences to a location. But being really open to some of the policies and procedures may be different and just being really open to learning.
Kaye Mendoza (6:27)
Correct. Also, one thing that I want to emphasize is, there is importance of knowing what really the policy and procedure of your facility. Okay, sometimes the orientation goes like this, you’re going to be sitting down, observe, you know.
You’re going to be sitting down in front of the computer going through the entire policy and procedure of the new place. And then when you get to act 12, you see things done differently. So those happen. It is also possible that you’re given a preceptor on day one, a different preceptor on the second day, a different preceptor on the third, and the fourth and they all do different things.
Kara Murphy (7:11)
So what do you do with that? Because I do hear that, okay, what do you do when you have a couple different preceptors that maybe do things a little bit differently?
Kaye Mendoza (7:21)
So I, I just observe at first. I don’t tell them that wasn’t the one written in a policy and procedure, you know. So, you don’t do that. You don’t tell them what they’re doing wrong, of course, unless it’s different, you know, detrimental putting patient’s life to risk or putting your license to risk, okay.
So if you see a practice that’s still within the policies and procedures, just tweaked on, you know, that will make their life easier, that’s fine. You know, I want you to absorb those information.
The second nurse, if they show you different things that is still within the policy and procedure of the hospital, absorb it, okay. The third nurse is doing different things and outside the policy and procedure, now, I want you to use your critical thinking as a professional healthcare provider, to see if you yourself if you want to absorb that or not.
So most likely, you should not, should not follow that. But it’s not your responsibility as a new orientee to tell them that they’re doing wrong, okay, it’s not your responsibility to fix these people. There is management who takes care of that, but for you, your focus should be absorbing the correct way that is within the policy and procedure of the facility.
So gather all those different practices and I want you to give your time. Give yourself time to process it and see which one do I want to adopt. Because every, you know, every single day you will learn different things.
And every single day you should be crafting your own delivery care, you know, crafting for the best delivery care that you can do. So that is totally fine. If you see fraud and that’s really putting your license or your patients at risk. Then do what the policies and procedures say go to go to your manager, raise it up.
And majority of the managers are very supportive of the new nurses and you can also anonymously report, you know. You don’t want to be the you know, the person who will be like creating so much wave when you get to a new place.
You’re going to be in trouble, you’re going to give yourself so much issue you know. But majority of the Filipinos are peacemakers, peace lovers, so we try to be you know, diplomatic in many ways.
Kara Murphy (9:41)
Which is great. So it sounds like, I’m hearing you say observe, really take in, learn the policies and procedures, know that there may be a little bit different ways of doing things and they might see that with different preceptors and, and then also asking questions right on if something is unclear.
Kaye Mendoza (10:02)
Good. Yeah, it’s important to ask questions. Number one rule for nurses – you never assume. So I think it’s not only for nurses. If any person in the healthcare delivery system, you should never assume.
That’s why we’re always taught to verify read back, you know, those are the things that we teach our nursing students. Because it’s important to not assume because assuming will get everything in trouble, everyone in trouble.
So one thing to do there is to identify who you can trust. And it’s not easy, but at least identify who you think is the person that is approachable. And it’s not hard to identify those people. And that’s the most important part of being in those preceptorship with different preceptors.
Because you will learn and feel who are those people who can be easily asked and will not judge you. And those are very important to identify, after identifying that person, whom you think that you’re comfortable expressing, you know, your questions, you know, I want you to write down, whatever time you go into a preceptorship, write down notes.
And then at the end of the shift, or at the end of the discussion, feel free to ask them because, you know, these people are very willing to teach you. There’s a lot of them really, you know, very helpful there, out of their kindness.
And I want to emphasize this important part here, a lot of these preceptors are not paid extra to teach you. A lot of them are doing this out of their kindness, and you have to appreciate what they’re doing for you. And in return, they will appreciate you, if they see that you are proactive in your learning.
It’ll give them a sense of fulfillment and creates a very good atmosphere and culture within the workplace. Take down notes, and then ask them at the end. Because you don’t want to be going every you know, every single hour, asking somebody you know, somebody’s asking a question either.
You can just write down all your questions. And I’ll be honest with you, no manager expects a new nurse to absorb 100% of what’s being taught, right. So our brain cannot really, you know, record or memorize everything that’s been told and sent to you.
So majority of the time, you will retain, about 30, 40, 50% of what’s being taught to you on that day. But if you write down notes, it can add to that a retention of about 70- 80% that you’ll be retaining from that preceptorship.
Kara Murphy (12:49)
That’s great. I appreciate that. And I love the ask questions as you go along. But also keep writing down all the different questions because there’s a lot right? And, to be able to go ahead and go back and ask those questions, almost like a debrief at the end of you know, what I learned, these are the questions that I still have, this is what I want some more education or looking forward to, that’s great. Anything else?
Kaye Mendoza (13:18)
I want to add their you know, the cultural, you know, the Filipinos. When our international nurses would come into a new country, there’s this cultural impact that that will hinder us or put us into challenge of learning and, and one important aspect there is a lot of us in our culture is we don’t ask.
Because asking you know, asking somebody in authority is like a, you know, we find it in our culture disrespectful. It’s like, don’t ask, but actually in reality now, is you should ask if you have questions. Always ask, and asking is not being disrespectful, okay.
Probably where we came from, it might be, but here in the United States accept this fact, that asking in the United States is not disrespectful at all. Okay. And asking, it’s not questioning their integrity.
Asking is not questioning the preceptors’ you know, knowledge. You have to be clear and concise with that, that you’re asking for clarification. Okay. So, you know, you don’t want to be feeling like, why is this new nurse keep asking me like she doesn’t trust me or she doesn’t believe me, you know.
You just have to make sure that you know, that you are clear that “hey, I have a question. I know you mentioned this to me earlier, but I just want to clarify if this is for this or this is for that”, you know.
Those are the most important thing. And feel free to ask questions again. If you don’t understand because sometimes language barriers comes in, you can just say, “Excuse me, can you repeat that?”
It’s very, it’s very important to say that if you don’t understand, that, you know, I know it’s very hard to hear different accent when I went to Boston. The accent that I my ears was used to.
Primarily I took IELTS, and IELTS is British accent, and I passed it. Well, I took my TOEFL as well, which is the English testing of English, right? I passed it too. But when I compared TOEFL and IELTS, those are two different accents. And then I landed in New York. It’s like a salad bowl of accents. We have Jamaican, Dominican, Russian, my ears were bleeding.
And, and it’s very important, when you land in these kind of places where there is just so much accent, it’s very important to ask and clarify very, very important.
I said when I went to Boston, even though I’ve been working the United States more than two years already, that was really a challenge for me to understand what they’re saying. They have strong Bostonian accent, you know, this is what they say.
“Your card?” And you’re like “what?”
So if it was like, “Whoa, this is the code card. This is the plastic card.”
Kara Murphy (16:30)
This is the down on those from Boston.
Kaye Mendoza (16:38)
But I was always going to say, Excuse me, can you see that again? Okay, so now, if you feel like you’re in that situation, I want you to encourage yourself to, to be proactive in learning those accents. Go to the TV, go to Netflix, go to YouTube, and then click Start watching those videos with those accents.
Kara Murphy (16:59)
Oh, interesting. Interesting. Oh, that’s great. Yeah, I wouldn’t have even thought about. So that that was great. So Kaye, I really hear like, observe, know that the policies and procedures are most likely going to be a little bit different from whatever their experience is.
So bring in the experience, but also learn, ask questions, write things down and, and ask clarifying questions. It’s okay to ask clarifying questions. In fact, I would say it’s powerful and necessary to ask questions to clarify as they’re as they’re learning.
And that relationship with their preceptor. I mean, that’s somebody they’re going to really get to know and be able to share things and openly ask questions and ask clarification, and being able to go back and, and asking additional questions. It’s just such a great relationship for the nurses as they come in
Kaye Mendoza (17:57)
Absolutely, it’s not easy, at the beginning, but hey, the more that you know that you practiced it, the more that you are going to be fine. And, and the more you help yourself, actually is going to determine the success of your stay in that facility.
Kara Murphy (18:17)
Right. That’s awesome. Well, Kaye I certainly appreciate you being on today and sharing your wisdom and little nuggets as you go along. So thank you again for spending time with us today.
Kaye Mendoza (18:32)
All right, thank you so much. Take care and I hope everybody gets a chance to do it too. To you know, explore what I have said and we discussed and, and good luck and never, you know, when you go past that you’re gonna, you’re just gonna keep on growing.
Kara Murphy (18:49)
That’s right. That’s right. It’s like a fun thing, right? Like, embrace it. Take it all on, learn as much as you can. Very cool. Good advice. All right. Thank you. Okay.
Kaye Mendoza (18:58)
All right. Bye, everyone.
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