How do you master onboarding in a healthcare organization, improve retention and job satisfaction? Creative Health Care Insight software platform was designed with a group of nursing education specialists from multiple organizations to provide a communication and training solution for transforming orientation for new hires, boosting your team’s morale and building nursing retention.
This article unpacks the best practices in healthcare onboarding that ensure strong cost savings deployment while you attract nurse leaders nationwide and all staff are engaged and equipped from day one, resulting in a stronger, more stable healthcare operation.
Key Takeaways
- Implementing innovative onboarding strategies, such as digital microlearning access, a tiered structure of orientation, and a tiered skills acquisition model can enhance new hire productivity, reduce turnover, and lead to significant cost savings for healthcare institutions.
- Continuous access to updated organizational knowledge via cloud-based microlearning platforms supports immediate productivity and ongoing professional development of healthcare staff.
- Measuring the effectiveness of onboarding strategies using metrics like orientation time reduction and tracking new hire retention at critical junctures provides valuable insights into the success of the onboarding process and its financial impact.
Revolutionizing Healthcare Onboarding
The key to this revolution lies in the onboarding process – a critical phase of the new hire orientation that can make or break the employee’s journey. Increasing the productivity of new healthcare employees and retaining them longer is achievable through a solid onboarding process. This mitigates short-term turnover and enhances the stability of the healthcare system. However, the challenge is in optimizing this process amidst the rapid and widespread adoption of new technologies and procedures.
The Importance of First Impressions
Especially in the healthcare industry, first impressions carry significant weight. Initiating early outreach to new hires prior to their first day can ease their anxiety and establish a foundation for an enjoyable onboarding experience. But contact is only half the battle; the other half is ensuring that all the necessary tools for the job are prepared.
The technology at Creative Health Care Insight offers this process. From the very beginning, preparing technology and system access for new hires before their start date, is a step crucial for immediate productivity and ensuring a seamless onboarding experience.
Crafting a Tiered Orientation Model
The crux of the revolutionized onboarding process is tiered orientation. This precepting method involves:
- Observation by the orientee
- Systematic review of a new hire’s progress
- Informal learning needs assessment
- Smooth transition from fundamental skills to greater complexity
- Reinforcement of time management
A tiered structure of orientation has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing orientation time for both new graduates and experienced hires. It ensures a smooth transition and helps reinforce time management skills.
The impact of tiered orientation is not just theoretical. Implementing a tiered orientation structure and a tiered skills acquisition model at a teaching hospital with 188 newly licensed registered nurses had several positive outcomes. These include:
- Increased nurses’ confidence
- Role satisfaction
- Retention
- Reduced overall length of orientation
- Increased number of patient experiences
Tiered orientation incorporates continuous learning and customized training and development opportunities as part of the onboarding process to support professional advancement.
Aligning with Clinical Education Departments
Given the complexity and the ever-evolving nature of the healthcare world, it’s crucial to synchronize the onboarding process with the Clinical Education Departments. Nursing education specialists and nurse leaders play an integral role in developing a specialized onboarding curriculum that combines foundational nursing education and nursing skills with department-specific needs. The curriculum introduces clinical competencies that are critical for the specific patient population that the department serves, ensuring that education is aligned with organizational standards and expectations.
Collaboration between nursing education specialists and department leaders ensures that the curriculum meets the necessary clinical standards and complements the goals of the clinical education department.
“TSAM® has increased nurses’ confidence, role satisfaction, retention, reduced overall length of orientation by 18%, and increased the number of patient experiences by 45%.“
Joswiak ME. Transforming Orientation Through a Tiered Skills Acquisition Model. – J Nurses Prof Dev. 2018 May/Jun;34(3):118-122. doi: 10.1097/NND.0000000000000439. PMID: 29715203.
Gradual Increase of Responsibilities
For a new hire, the learning curve can be steep. Role clarity is crucial in the onboarding process to establish a clear understanding of job responsibilities and expectations it’s not about throwing them into the deep end.
In healthcare onboarding, it’s strategic to gradually provide new employees with opportunities to take on more responsibilities. This promotes expertise in time management and critical thinking within their specific departmental environments.
Communication and Training Solutions
Effective communication and training solutions are pivotal in any successful onboarding process. Creative Health Care Insight offers a cloud-based platform, designed for initial and ongoing nurse professional development. This innovative and efficient solution has transformed team communications and training into digestible and structured content, leading to significant cost savings and improved patient outcomes.
Personal Mobile Device Integration
Personal mobile devices have become an integral part of our lives, and the healthcare industry is no exception. Personal digital assistants support the digital transformation in healthcare and bridge knowledge gaps among staff. Attracting a younger workforce and offering greater technology adoption requires aligning workplace technology with their expectations, which includes the use of personal digital assistants and ensuring their personal mobile device retained is allowed.
Access to microlearning solutions coupled with tiered orientation transforms essential knowledge into bite-sized support resources that are ideal for addressing low-frequency, high-risk tasks. By digitizing and condensing necessary information for easy access by healthcare staff via a microlearning platform, healthcare institutions can ensure that new hires are productive immediately, minimizing the initial downtime.
Ensuring Constant Access to Collective Organizational Knowledge
In the fast-paced environment of healthcare, access to reliable and timely information is crucial. Healthcare personnel use personal mobile devices equipped with digital assistants to continuously access collective organizational knowledge, thereby reducing manual workload and providing real-time prompts, guidance, and data capture.
Measuring Onboarding Effectiveness
While many strategies seem promising, their true effectiveness can be validated by metrics. The implementation of tiered orientation in healthcare systems has engaged the workforce, improved patient outcomes, and shortened time to competency for new hires, resulting in significant cost savings.
Beyond the numbers, there’s also the human aspect. By analyzing turnover data, particularly within the first year, onboarding effectiveness in relation to long-term retention can be measured. An outstanding onboarding experience can improve what today’s workers expect by up to 70% and improve new hire retention by up to 82%. Candidate and new hire surveys offer valuable feedback for measuring the onboarding experience and identifying areas for enhancement. Thus, tracking turnover at critical onboarding junctures such as:
- Pre-start
- One week
- 90 days
- Six months
- One year
Direct Dollar Cost Analysis
Significant fiscal savings have been realized through the optimization of training time, directly translating into valuable average training time savings. Orientation time reductions can result in savings after implementing the Creative Health Care Insight platform.
Financial impacts such as turnover ratios when compared with new hire turnover offer a quantifiable measure to evaluate the financial influence of the onboarding program. Nurse leaders reported major resource-saving benefits and improved outcomes with the implementation of nursing management practices, such as onboarding.
Analyzing Metrics of Success
The effectiveness of these onboarding programs is not just anecdotal. The integration of a tiered skills acquisition model in conjunction with Creative Health Care Insight can significantly reduce the time spent on orientation.
Evaluating the reduction in average orientation time for new healthcare hires is crucial in assessing the effectiveness of onboarding programs.
Post-Implementation Assessments
The onboarding process extends beyond the point when the new hire is fully integrated into their role. Indeed, the post-implementation phase forms a crucial part of the onboarding process. Employing personal digital assistants in this phase can contribute to reducing errors and enhance the onboarding process by providing real-time guidance.
Time-to-productivity is a key metric for assessing how quickly new hires transition to fully contributing members of the team following the implementation of the onboarding strategy, which ultimately reflects team performance quality.
Building a Supportive Environment
Peer support services in healthcare settings are delivered by individuals who share similar experiences, which can be effective in reducing the orientation time for graduate RNs by providing relatable guidance and support.
Assigning Mentors for Graduate RN Orientation Time
Mentorship plays a pivotal role in the onboarding process. It enhances problem-solving abilities and effective professional communication among new nurses, potentially improving teamwork and patient outcomes.
By assigning mentors during the onboarding process, healthcare institutions can alleviate uncertainty for new hires by offering consistent information and guidance, and the Initial Competencies Component within Creative Health Care Insight provides a place for mentors, preceptors, or managers to communicate with new hires as well as document the communication.
Encouraging Department Shift Huddles
Beyond one-to-one mentorship, creating a sense of community among healthcare workers is also crucial in the onboarding process. Department shift huddles are an effective practice for integrating new hires into the healthcare team environment. Through huddles, peer workers engage directly with new staff, providing immediate support. These huddles facilitate real-time information exchange which is particularly beneficial for training in complex workflows.
Encouraging regular department shift huddles is recommended to optimize the onboarding process and in-person training efficiency.
Long-Term Engagement Strategies
While the initial stages of the onboarding process are vital, maintaining the long-term engagement of employees holds equal importance. Healthcare practices should establish an effective onboarding process lasting typically three to six months, avoiding a rushed approach which can lead to disengagement and increased turnover. Emphasizing continuous learning and adaptability in the onboarding plan prepares healthcare workers for the evolving set of skills expected in their future, thereby promoting long-term engagement.
Structured support through consistent check-ins with mentors and leadership meetings can address concerns and solidify the new hires’ engagement with the healthcare organization. Building a culture of health within the organization not only reduces recruitment and retention costs but also enhances financial returns. Tools such as those offered through Creative Health Care Insight can support this goal by improving retention through enhanced shared governance and collaboration.
Professional Advancement Opportunities
In the healthcare industry, progress is constant, and so is the need for professional advancement. Continuous learning opportunities and clear role expectations are key elements that enhance job satisfaction and retention among healthcare employees.
The Professional Advancement Component offers the following features:
- A customizable tool that targets programs based on points or requirements
- Quick verification of required documentation
- Integration with reporting requirements
Embracing Shared Governance
A shared governance model can play a significant role in enhancing staff engagement and reducing turnover rates in healthcare settings. Shared governance in nursing involves policies that allow staff to participate in decision-making, creating a sense of empowerment and accountability. Research indicates that shared governance models lead to improved patient care, increased staff satisfaction, and higher employee retention.
Implementing a shared governance system requires:
- Committed leadership
- Effective training
- Clear goals
- Inclusive communication
Medical facilities that adopted shared governance have reported substantial increases in staff engagement and participation.
Summary
Revolutionizing onboarding in your healthcare organization is no small task. It involves a multifaceted approach that combines digital training, cloud-based microlearning applications, effective communication, structured frameworks, supportive environments, long-term engagement strategies, and the measurement of onboarding effectiveness. Creative Health Care Insight offers these strategies and tools so that healthcare organizations can not only enhance the productivity and retention of their staff but also improve patient outcomes and save valuable training dollars.
In closing, let’s remember that the healthcare industry is constantly evolving, and so should its onboarding processes. It’s about time we not only address the current workforce shortages and challenges but also prepare for the future of healthcare delivery. After all, the success of any healthcare system lies in the hands of its healthcare employees.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Tiered Skills Acquisition Model?
The Tiered Skills Acquisition Model is a method of precepting that involves orientees observing with full patient loads and is effective in shortening orientation for new graduates and experienced hires, ensuring a systematic review of progress.
How can personal digital assistants support the digital transformation in healthcare?
Personal digital assistants can support the digital transformation in healthcare by providing real-time prompts, guidance, and data capture, which can bridge knowledge gaps among staff. This helps improve efficiency and accuracy in healthcare practices.
What role does mentorship play in the onboarding process?
Mentorship plays a crucial role in the onboarding process by improving problem-solving abilities, communication, teamwork, and patient outcomes for new employees, while also providing them with a reliable source of support and integration into the team.
How is the effectiveness of onboarding programs measured?
The effectiveness of onboarding programs is measured through turnover data, candidate and new hire surveys, and time-to-productivity metrics to assess the transition of new hires into fully contributing team members. This helps in evaluating the impact of the onboarding strategy.
What are some of the benefits of a shared governance model in healthcare settings?
A shared governance model in healthcare settings can enhance staff engagement, reduce turnover rates, improve patient care, increase staff satisfaction, and retain employees. Ultimately, it leads to a more effective and stable healthcare environment.
Sources:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29715203
https://www.hospitalmedicine.org/professional-development/download/shm-onboarding-case-studies