Second in a series on selecting and hiring perioperative nurses and integrating them into the staff. It has become increasingly evident that ORs need to train their own circulators. St Luke's Boise Medical Center in Idaho has developed a 14-step onboarding program that helps to recruit and retain qualified RN…

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As an aging population, a recovering economy, and health care reform bring more patients into the operating room, will there be enough surgeons to care for them? A shortage of 124,000 to 159,000 MDs is projected within 15 years—and about a third of the shortage will be in surgery, according…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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.…

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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…

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