[Daytonite]

Originally Posted by Jolie

Is it not the co-workers who orient a new employee? Is it not the job of a preceptor to make the new employee aware of facility policies and procedures? Is it not the responsibility of a preceptor to make an orientee aware of aspects of his/her practice that do not conform to facility policy and procedure, such as patient safety, patient care or legal issues? Should the preceptor not address these issues directly to the new employee, and then involve management if the problem persisits?

I can't imagine working in any facility where co-workers are encouraged to report every issue directly to management without addressing each other first.

The way employees interact with each other is also very important. As a manager I didn't tolerate one-upmanship, back biting, game playing if I saw it going on. I worked in long term care over the years and know exactly how this gets played in these facilities and I think there is more to the relationship between this new employee and the OP than has been revealed. It is human nature sometimes to want to step on the new guy and put them "in their place". That's what I'm talking about as well here. That is wrong. What happened here is that the OP got a very unexpected result in that this new employee stepped right into the game and gave back as good as she got. This frustrated the OP who didn't get the upper hand she was looking for in the situation and is using the HIPAA thing to blame for the whole thing going wrong.

Orientation is helping someone learn and adapt to the facility's way of doing things. Saying the words, "you can't take your hall sheet and census report home because of HIPAA" has nothing to do with the facility way of doing things. While HIPAA compliance might be built into the facility policy, an understanding of HIPAA should be known by one and all licensed nurses anyway. There is no need or justification for anyone to be acting as a self-appointed enforcement officer of HIPAA unless the people in charge are incompetent. There was no indication of that here. HIPAA isn't violated until the information on hall sheets or census reports is viewed by unauthorized eyes or there is a specific facility policy that says you can't remove that information. I wouldn't have even responded to this entire discussion if the person's response to the new employee had been, "there is a rule that we are not allowed to remove our hall sheets or census reports from the premises. We get written up if we are caught doing it." Notice the emphasis on using the word "we" and not "you". Makes for developing a better relationship with new people. What caught my attention was the way in which it was done and the possible underlying motive for it.

[jjjoy]

Originally Posted by Daytonite

"there is a rule that we are not allowed to remove our hall sheets or census reports from the premises. We get written up if we are caught doing it." Notice the emphasis on using the word "we" and not "you". Makes for developing a better relationship with new people. What caught my attention was the way in which it was done and the possible underlying motive for it

Great advice in regard to how to deal with policy enforcement & interpersonal communication! Thanks!