Administrator Debra Fin has a creative approach to integrating staff in 2022.
Ms. Fin is the administrator of Great Lakes Bay Surgery & Endoscopy Center in Midland, Mich. She joined Becker's to discuss how she's tackling the challenge of integrating long-standing employees and new hires.
Editor's note: These responses were edited lightly for clarity and brevity.
Question: What are you most worried about in 2022?
Debra Fin: In our market, my challenges concern managing the intersection of staffing, culture and patient safety. With COVID-19, we have had significant staff change across the organization due to intense competition for replacement staff by all healthcare providers in mid-Michigan. The new nurses and techs bring new skills and insights, but also require integration with our long-standing employees. We have been spending a great deal of time sourcing and onboarding new staff, and that now requires us to take a step back and help patient care areas integrate new team members and build relationships and trust. Getting the new staff to feel welcomed and part of the team is just as important as supporting existing staff to address change in their team members and the loss of those relationships.
Teams that function well communicate better and deliver a quality patient experience. Teams that work together well know how to support each other to deliver safe patient care. We are now planning skills day events to support clinical and safety training. Clinical leaders are creating opportunities for groups to have some fun together and get to know each other. Examples include competitive donning and doffing practices, scavenger hunts, chili cook-offs and a Valentine's bake-off!
These type activities also help our facility to use some nonproductive clinical hours to round out some days when patient load is shorter due to pandemic patient cancellations.