Hospital Orientation

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Float Pool, Women's Health.

I am such a "green hand".... LOL.... I am SUPER stoked about finally landing my first job! But I am lost as to what goes on during orientation. I know different hospitals do things differently, but in general, what goes on during orientation? I know at some point we will take a math test, and during the 2nd week, they said we would go through their skills lab....

Any insight would be great!

Thanks!

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Specializes in Cardiac/Progressive Care.

My first week, the other new grad hires and I took our math test, did the documentation training and order entry class, and did some basic skills stuff- we went over the iv pumps we use, epidural pumps, etc. After that, we were on the floor with our preceptors. During the 3 months with our preceptors, we had unit specific skills checklists to complete.

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Specializes in Tele/cardiovascular stepdown.

I think it depends on the program. During my orientation we had basic hospital orientation (healthcare plans, how security works, hospital management structure, etc), math test, dysrhythmia test (for those of us working in cardiac units), and we also had a TON of classroom instruction depending on the unit we were going to be working on (kind of like a crash course review of nursing school). Then we also spent time in the simulation lab practicing codes and how to use ventilators. It was intense, but really helpful!

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Specializes in med surg home care PEDS.

BTW Congratulations on getting a job, you give all us new grads hops

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Specializes in ER/Ortho.

As the above poster said I think it depends on your hospital. At my first nursing job orientation consisted of them walking us into the ER and saying here you are. (BAD SIGN), and placing us with a very unprepared preceptor.

My current hospital was very organized. We had three days of system wide orientation where all the hospitals in our system met in an central location, we went over insurance, benefits, system wide policies and rules, played games, ate really good food etc.

Then we had a week and a half of hospital nursing orientation for all new nurses in our hospital. This included a test to see if you have the nursing basics down (1st day), and then a math test, and a day of lab practicals where we showed them we knew how to do basic patient care (Foley's, IV's etc) just like in nursing school practicals. Then we had a day where they showed us in the lab things that were specific to how our hospital did things and we practiced. We also spent a couple of days learning the different computer systems etc.

Then on to three days of unit specific orientation on the floor. We had a tour, a scavenger hunt to learn where everything was located. I work in Ortho so we spent half a day with PT, half a day with OT, a couple of hours with the guy who runs the equipment room (braces, casts etc), a half a day with the secretary, a couple of hours learning transfer equipment. We also had people coming in occasionally teaching us how to self schedule and do this and that. We had all this paper work to get checked off as we did things.

Then we were placed with a preceptor for several weeks, and had a paper she had to check off stating we had done certain things up to a level they found adequate to be on our own. We also had to do a care plan to turn in at the end of orientation.

It sounds like a lot, but I think it was great that they spent so much time and money to make sure we were ready to be on our own, and know what we were doing.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

Wear your TED hose, cause you are gonna be sitting A LOT!!!

Orientation is informative, but often times VERY boring the first week as you trudge through hospital policy, the reams of paperwork that you are required to read, the checklists that you must go through. Bring some coffee!

The second week is better because you will be introduced to your unit and you will be up and active. You will get a better feel for the hospital overall when you are on your own unit.

Congrats to you!

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Float Pool, Women's Health.

Thank you Cool Peach! I hope my hospital does similar to the one you described.

Thanks everyone else also! :) This has been really helpful.

I start orientation on Nov 29. Will be in orientation for 2 weeks, then on the floor with a preceptor for 6 weeks! I'm SOOO excited!

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Specializes in Labor and Delivery.

This was very informative!!! At least I know what to expect soon!!!!

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Specializes in ER, Trauma.

I've had orientations last from a few hours to a few weeks. The longer I'm in nursing the more convinced I am that hospital orientation is a conspiracy to punish nurses for switching jobs. IMHO.

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I'm two years into my nursing career and worked first on a Med/Surg floor, then transfered to the LTC dept. When initially starting, I had one day of "hospital orientation" where we went over benefits, policies, had speakers, etc. Then I had two weeks of the most intense critical thinking coorifice I'd ever seen! Some consisted of essay questions when given a scenario, answering first, then, last type ordering questions, and video clips where something was wrong and we were supposed to pick up on it and tell how we'd intervene. After that I precepted with another nurse for two and a half months with one of those checklist to make sure I saw a cardiac drip, heparin drip, ETOH protocol, R/O MI protocol....etc. Most of these things I did not see during my preceptorship but instead read through them in order to check them off the list. But you better believe that I had my first of them as soon as I got off orientation, including my first code blue, which oddly enough was not on the check list. We continued to have monthly critical thinking meetings for new grads for 6 months.

When transfering to the LTC, I just had to watch a few videos and had a checklist. I'm now moving to another city and starting at a new hospital in the ICU/Telemetry dept. where I will be taking the ACLS course and a Critical Care course online that consists of 80 hours. So far I know that I will have the usual health screen and "hospital orientation" which I'm told that the CEO will be speaking and then I will have a week of orienting to the computer systems that they're using. I'm a little nervous because I'm not sure I'll even be able to find the elevators to my floor without getting lost but I'm told you can use the "I'm new." excuse for a year so.....:p Hope this helps and also thanks to everyone because this post and replies are also helpful for me!

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Specializes in neuro/ortho med surge 4.

Depends on the hospital. I had a week of policies, how to work the pumps, and had a lot of paperwork thrown at me. The paperwork consisted of the different types of forms that are used on the floor. No explanantions about them. Just were given these forms. Then I had 3 weeks of on the floor training with the charge nurse of the day. Needless to say I did a lot of crying that first year as a new nurse.

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