I'm here to pick your brain about what you loved and hated about your orientations

[curlyrn09]

Hi all.. I am new to the forum and wanted some feedback/ opinions regarding orientation.. I have worked in a 60+ bed LTAC for just about three years. We have what's called a nursing practoce council which is used to drive nursing practice in our facility and recently, the topic of revamping our orientation process for new hires has come up. We tend to hire a lot of brand new grads (which I think is great-- I was hired as a new grad at a time I wasn't sure that I would be able to find a job!) Anyway I'm here to pick your brains about what you loved and hated about your orientation process.. what you thought was really great. And what was really terrible. If there are nurses from LTACs who have input, id love to hear it, as well as nurses in smaller facilities.. we are in an umbrella with a larger hospital who has a far more in depth orientation process., but LTACs are smaller with less personnel and more limited resources. Thank you all so much for your time and help! I'm so appreciative!

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

I started on a med surg nurse in a large hospital. What I liked about my orientation was being with different preceptors and that the manager/educator did not mind if I picked one nurse over another, which towards the end I did. I know some people hate this but I was super thrilled I wasn't "stuck" with one person, especially since most people do NOT want to precept. You get to learn different ways of doing things, do not get stuck with just one person's limitations, different ways to approach things, and a REALLY hidden gem, in retrospect, is I learned a lot about how my co-workers practice. Pretty valuable information, now.