Lehigh Valley Hospital had a problem. "We were losing experienced people," says Tammy Straub, RN, MSN, CNOR, CRNP, administrator of preoperative services, Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH) and Health Network, which has 988 beds, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. "Turnover was high, and people were leaving even before orientation was complete," adds Hope…
Fourth article in a series on performance management. Elements of performance management Job description Initial competencies Orientation Goal setting/ performance planning Competency assessment Coaching, mentoring, and recognition Performance evaluation Self-evaluation Peer evaluation Performance enhancement plan. This article continues to build on the first 3 articles in this series, published in…
As an OR manager, have you ever asked, "What will I be doing 5 years from now? Will I be doing the same thing I'm doing now?" Your staff may be asking themselves the same questions. No two days for an OR manager are the same. But can the staff…
The best way to have a surgical facility that serves patients and employees well is to create and nurture a culture of retention, a veteran nurse and management consultant says. Keeping good nurses is the goal, and it requires a careful strategy. Interestingly, money is not the only—not even the…
Second article in a series on performance management. Elements of performance management Job description Initial competencies Orientation Goal setting/ performance planning Competency assessment Coaching, mentoring, and recognition Performance evaluation Self-evaluation Peer evaluation Performance enhancement plan. This article builds on the first, published in the June OR Manager, which provided an…
It takes a village to retain a staff. That's true for staff of any age—those over 50 as well as Generation X and Y. If you look at the list of 2007 AARP Best Employers for Workers over 50, one of the themes is collegiality—the idea that we're in this…
A variety of shifts, flexible benefits, ergonomic aid, and building bridges between generations are strategies ORs are using to retain senior staff in hospitals recognized by AARP as the Best Employers for Workers Over 50. Hospitals made up more than half of the top 15 employers on AARP's 2007 list.…
Changes in reimbursement are bringing nurse-sensitive quality measures to the fore. Medicare will no longer pay for complications like retained foreign bodies and pressure ulcers. And Medicare's administrator has proposed to Congress that part of DRG payments be based on meeting quality measures. That means nurses could be the new…
How do you know a nurse is a good fit for the OR—even if the person doesn't have OR experience? There's a body of research that shows that the better the fit between an organization and an employee, the longer the person is likely to stay. Managers often say they…
Like budgets and performance appraisals, you can't avoid the word "Magnet" in today's health care world. The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) developed the Magnet Recognition Program in 1993 to recognize health care organizations with nursing excellence. Currently, 238 health care organizations in 44 states have Magnet designation. Your organization…