New agency DON needs imput

[BoopetteRN]

I have just accepted the position of DON for the agency I have worked for for a year. They have never had an active DON, only a person whose name was used. I want to be an active DON and help meet the needs of the small agency. I have begun on site visits and meeting with everyone so they can get to know me. My bigest question is how do other agencies inservice and keep their employees up on changes as they come or are they at the mercy of the facilites they service to provide this inforrmation? Until now, we have had no leadership, and I am at the very begining, getting my feet wet. Thanks for any input you can give me.

[nightingale, RN]

Great question. I came from a HH Agency who sorely lacked continuing education. I ended up going to the company website and fullfilling all the available CEU's for free. I then went to our public training program for nurses, in our small sort of rurual area, and signed up for whatever is free; there was an all day Bioterorism Disaster Training for Health Care Workers.

You could check on what is free in your corporation and organize it for the Nurses in a Binder. Add to the info current local training. I would also make notee to mention this in your weekly meeting with staff.

I am adding this as a start in your quest for knowledge. I am sure others, with direct experience will have some valuable input.

[barefootlady, ADN, RN]

Visit the facilities that use your nurses the most and ask the DON, Supervisors, and HN for a list of things they expect your agency nurses to be able to do when they report for duty. If there are special things for certain facilities then ask them if they are willing to devote a week to training the nurses who frequently fill their needs. Make sure you have a core of nurses who want to fill this facilities needs and want this training. Schedule these nurses and pay them half pay out of the agency expense account. This will surely get the facility to use your agency more. These nurses will get more work too.

Study what the state requires every RN, LPN, and CNA to have to maintain a license. Set up a monthly inservice, again paid at half pay, and assign the people who have birthdays that month to attend. DO NOT ALLOW them to accept further assignments until they can prove they have met all regs by the end of their birthday month.

Inservice material is easy to come by and can be inexpensive when done by a group.

[BoopetteRN]

I have sent out a letter intorducing myself and that I am available as a resourse person or a shoulder to cry when the need arises. I have developed a newsletter for our staff that brings the ever changing news directly to our staff, like changes in the way public aid is paying for drugs which forces the pharmacy to card the pills at the lowest dose (could be the cause for many drug errors) I have been going and meeting with the DONs from the facilities we serve the most, and have been asking what they feel are my staff's strong and weak points. I held my first inservice on Friday. I have gathered information and have gotten flexable binders to hold the information so they can carry it with them in their nursing bag. I have been going to the facilities where my staff is and meeting with them to see how they are doing and if they need anything. I have streamlined the complaint process so facilities just have to fax the problem over and I can then get a handle on it right away instead of playing fax and phone tag. This is definately a work in progress.

Thanks again for your input.