Onboarding New Staff

Specialties Management

Published

I am looking into building a new onboarding for new nursing staff. The current process we have just doesn't work and frankly, we are having a hard time keeping new staff because of it. Any ideas of what works at your facility.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

What are you doing to onboard new staff? In what way is it not working?

Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.

OP: Also, what are the nurses who quit saying or not saying in an exit interview? Do you really have a problem with administrative and competency training OR is it that there may be entrenched cliques that think they own your facility and are not very inviting to outsiders? A good way to find out the answer to this question is to have a third party interview recent nurses who quit the facility. GL!

The problem currently is we don't have an onboarding process. The educator we had pretty much turned the orientees loose on the floor. We have a new educator that starts after the start of the new year so her and I will work together. I am trying to develop what I can ahead of time so we have something to start with and can make changes as we see fit once we get a chance to meet. Just looking for advice on the process at this point.

Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.

One of the main things that differs from place to place, that even an experienced new hire would need to know, is forms and paperwork. Explain how the forms are properly completed and what method of charting that you use. Go over basic rules and regulations, especially anything that might be somewhat unique to your place of employment. Explain your medication system - how meds are charted, how they are dispensed, how they are ordered and so forth. Explain the leave policy - how long you must be employed to use leave, how much you accumulate and whether you have PTO or separate annual and sick leave banks. Having the new nurses shadow a current nurse for 2-3 days might be a good idea.

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