Poor Orientation

[Mdecker912]

I work for a very large hospital organization where I started less than 6 months ago. I work in the OR where there are currently 14 nurses on orientation. I am truly concerned with patient safety as well as nurse safety. Almost daily nurses on orientation are being pulled to run their own rooms. There are brand new nurses barely weeks into their first job and they are being placed by themselves. We have tried to emphasize to our managers how uncomfortable we are, but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

I'm wondering if we should be calling our compliance line to report patient safety concerns or if this is normal.

[Flatline, BSN, RN]

If you feel that you are placing your patient's at risk you have an ethical, professional, and legal duty to take action to stop it and report it.

That being said, do you believe there is clear and present danger to your patients or do you just feel uncomfortable in your practice?

[Gr4ceffa, CNA]

Do you feel uncomfortable that new nurses are being placed by themselves, or is there a real danger to the patients? The two thing are very different.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

There is evidence in the literature that the experience & expertise of nursing staff are vitally important to patient safety. HERE is one such study. There was also a fairly recent study conducted in PICUs (can't find it right now) ... that concluded >20% of nursing staff with

But PPs are correct. You can't 'report' something that hasn't happened. IF something does happen, be sure that your variance report indicates that this (staff are not fully competent) is a related factor. In the meantime, make sure that the newbies know that they can refuse an assignment if they feel they are not competent to fulfill it .... in fact, your Nurse Practice Act (like mine) probably requires them to do so. Keep an eye on them and provide all the support you can. It is horrible to be involved in a bad/negative event - but much worse for someone just starting his career.

[Sour Lemon]

I work for a very large hospital organization where I started less than 6 months ago. I work in the OR where there are currently 14 nurses on orientation. I am truly concerned with patient safety as well as nurse safety. Almost daily nurses on orientation are being pulled to run their own rooms. There are brand new nurses barely weeks into their first job and they are being placed by themselves. We have tried to emphasize to our managers how uncomfortable we are, but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

I'm wondering if we should be calling our compliance line to report patient safety concerns or if this is normal.

It is somewhat normal to be thrown into the deep end before you feel ready, unfortunately.

If you do decide to report anything to anyone, you should start looking for another job ...and don't count on actually finding one- ever. In fact, it might be better to just look for another job and forget the whole reporting thing, entirely ..but you may find that the same thing happens at the next place.