[80's fan]

Hi....I am in staff development at a rapidly expanding 250 bed hospital. My hospital has recently been hiring a large number of agency nurses. We are on the path to going "paper free", and with the advent of computerized documentation it is near impossible to do a brief agency orientation. I do not want to put agency nurses at a disadvantage and would like them to be able to begin on their unit with the tools/knowledge necessary to function. Our computerized documentation training for non-agency new employees runs approximately 6 hours. Would anyone mind sharing what you encounter at hospitals with computerized documentation??? What type of orientation do you receive? Any thoughts???

[RN1989]

I've had some hospitals that did no orientation and had the agency nurses paper chart. Others have had agency nurses attend a one or two day class along with the staff nurses. One place was working on a self-study module for the agency nurses. It often depends on whether the hospital and/or agency is willing to pay the nurses for their time. I've worked agency at a place that would not pay me for the orientation which should have been my first clue there was a problem since I worked only one shift and refused to go back.

[suzanne4]

I have worked where the nurse got paid just $10 per hour for the computer class. This was a requirement to be able to work at the facility. And each of the facilities in the area had computerized charting. If you did not complete their class, then you could not be placed there. Simple as that.

Pay was good, so it was not much to give them a four hour block of time, made up for it in the long run.

Better to have them have the class before they start on the unit, makes it easier for everyone around.