The first day of a new contract can be very overwhelming.
Where do I park? Where do I go? What are the expectations of me?
On every single previous contract, all pre-employment tests were completed prior to being cleared for arrival. With every previous contract, I also had very little or no hospital orientation. I got a badge from security and was walked to my unit where I was immediately placed with my preceptor and started learning the ropes. And once on the unit, my orientation period was only 1-2 patients and then I was on my own. This type of orientation has its good and bad! Good being that I get to work right away and not sit in a classroom for hours at a time. Bad in the since that it is truly a sink or swim situation and that most of my “Check-Off” requirements were done weeks later or not at all.
This contract has started out very differently. This hospital, due to ongoing Covid precautions, has the majority of my hospital orientation being Virtual. This morning, I had to report to Occupational Health for an N95 fit test and then I was sent straight to the Badge office. After that, I came back to The Imagine and hopped on the computer for a virtual Q&A with a Travel nurse educator from the hospital. The Q&A was helpful in explaining the agenda that had been emailed to us the Friday before. Then I was directed to my list of modules. If you remember from my Ready for Reno blog, I have already completed 30 modules!! These new modules have been added and are related directly to my department.
Now, lets talk about the Competency Exam that was assigned to me. Some departments had more than one exam. I got lucky that Endoscopy does not have a general knowledge competency test, however, I still had to complete a Rhythm Interpretation and Interventions exam. I studied my ACLS and the hospital provided slideshow with the review of rhythms but that did little to prepare me for this exam! Holy Cow, this exam was one of my most difficult pre-employment exams to date! It was written in the NCLEX fashion with the “pick the best intervention” and “what is your first action” type of questions. One question went something like this : “Identify the rhythm shown and state what intervention you would take. The patient did not sustain this rhythm for longer than 6 seconds.” The answer to the question completely changed once I read the very last sentence of the question! Crazy tricky test but I am so relieved that I passed. I hate tests!!
Tomorrow, I am scheduled for a Virtual EPIC EMR class and then back to the remaining modules. So, stay tuned as I take this week one day at a time!
