1. Build a comprehensive and timelined orientation program. Gateway Endoscopy traditionally carried out its orientation by having new employees watch videos in a room with no sense of what was going to be taught and reviewed on any particular day. Ms. Beaver built a comprehensive orientation program that would span over a course of 4-6 weeks, depending on new staff members’ experience.
“Our old policy was that we’d put our new staff members, usually nurses, into a room, have them watch a video and then come out and take a test after they were done,” she says. “I designed a comprehensive orientation with the objective of helping nurses understand what they’re going to be taught, with a timeline of when they’re going to go over which topics, such personnel policies, how to clock in, where the lunch room is, how to remove a polyp and more.”
2. Use multiple methods to introduce material. Ms. Beaver says Gateway Endoscopy’s orientation program uses a variety of educational approaches to help new staff members understand orientation material.
“We still use videos, but now we also implement lecture material, hands-on training with our ASC preceptor and GI technician and other methods,” she says. “I try to break up some of the methods so that new staff members aren’t sitting all day going through learning packets. I’ll maybe try to do half a day of learning packets and the other half observing with another nurse.”
3. Allow opportunities for feedback. Another key component to the new comprehensive orientation program is the evaluation, which tests new staff members on competency over new ASC policies and procedures and offers them the opportunity to evaluate the orientation program. Any negative feedback gives the administration an idea of where to tweak the program for improvement, although the program has received mainly positive feedback from new staff members, Ms. Beaver says.
Learn more about Gateway Endoscopy Center.
