A heavy call schedule at one community hospital was driving the perioperative staff away and raising concerns about patient safety because of staff fatigue. With a staff turnover rate of 40% in 2007, the perioperative management team knew changes were needed. Since then, a new staffing model has almost eliminated…

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Motivation means more than money. That’s a message perioperative nursing directors have taken to heart. The 2012 OR Manager Salary/Career Survey asked OR managers and directors for their most successful ways of recognizing staff beyond salary raises and bonuses. Most often mentioned by hospital OR directors are: • thank you…

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The average age of a perioperative nurse is higher than the average of 47 for nurses overall. That makes retaining older nurses a critical need for OR managers. The immediate problem has subsided in recent years because of the poor economy. Still, “We’re concerned that as soon as the economy…

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Fourth in a series on selecting and hiring perioperative nurses and integrating them into the staff. So far, this series on onboarding has taken us from developing selection criteria to making a job offer through the initial phase of employment. The onboarding process for new OR circulators involves 14 steps…

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Third in a series on selecting and hiring perioperative nurses and integrating them into the staff. So far, this series has taken us from developing selection criteria to making a job offer. In the September and October 2010 issues, we looked at the first 9 steps for identifying suitable participants…

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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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