Week 5 Oct 19th-23rd

I met with my preceptor this week on Tuesday, Oct 20th for 9 hours. This week proved to be as rewarding as the previous week. We decided that my objective for that day would be to understand how she was able to maintain adequate staffing and what was required when hiring new staff members. Recently, my preceptor had 3 nurses resign for various reasons. With the holiday season approaching, she was in a crunch to find coverage for her areas. Since pediatrics, L&D, and nursery are such specialized areas, she need to find staff that was trained and ready to go as soon as hospital orientation was complete. It is acutally a tedious process when search for new employees. First, she has to contact human resources and inform them that she was in need of new staff and the number of positions open. Human resources handles the advertisement of the openings and helps to secure the interview with perspective employees. The provide the resumes and applications to my preceptor for her to review. Once she is able to review the applicants and resumes, she begins to make phone calls and arrange for interviews. I was able to review a few of the resumes of perpective employees and provide feedback on who I would choose to interview. It was at times a difficult decision. But, others were easily denied, especially the applicant who had a written addendum to their application! I could not believe that a professional would send a hand written addendum to their resume. It is true that first impressions are made by simply reading a resume. After this process, my preceptor makes a decision on who she is going to make a job offer to. She submits this information to Human Resources complete with job status and salary requirements. They will then contact the applicant and make the offer. It is Human Resources responsibilty to verify licensure and certifications. This too was a time consuming process. This clinical experience has really opened my eyes to all of the work involved in a manager's day!
I was also able to attend a management seminar with my preceptor. It was called Mastering the Art of Coaching and Teambuilding. It was an excellent seminar with tips on how to encourage employees to be on the team. Also, you are taught to identify different types of team players and work to make all of them happy. I enjoyed it tremendously.