Orientation

Today was my first day of hospital system orientation. Since I work for a hospital system with multiple campuses and 20,000 employees, they put on system wide orientation for all new hires at one central location.

It wasn't exactly your typical hospital orientation. Much less of the housekeeping type of stuff, and much more cheerleader type presentations. It was weird. I found myself quite bored at times while we were going over the copious power point slides all written in corporation-speak. In other words, a whole lot of words that don't really say anything. Thank goodness for the squishy man they included in our packets. Otherwise I might not have made it through without his antics...

However, the culture of the system as a whole is remarkable. 27% of employees have been there for 10 years or longer. That seems like a large percentage although I don't really have anything to compare it to. It also seems to be in line with my own personal observation during my management clinical and Capstone--every time I turned around it seemed like I was meeting someone who had been there 25-30 years.

The whole thing seemed a little unpolished and unorganized, but that's because it wasn't put on by an HR rep, but rather by two everyday employees. The idea was that anyone can come and do lip service to an organization, especially if that's what they're paid to do. However, just run of the mill employees that were just as pumped about the organization makes a statement.

On the flip side, there was a lot of support work involved too. For example, IT showed up with 25 laptops and set up a "Cyber Cafe" that was manned by an IT rep for every 2 computers to help people get logged in and work out any password issues. Very cool. Breakfast of fresh cut fruit, muffins, and bagels; lunch of baked salmon or baked chicken, rice pilaf, green beans and desert; then a cheese tray for afternoon snacks. There was an I-9 rep, there was a free gift from the hospital store. Tomorrow is the resource fair for benefits, including a wellness program that pays part of your insurance premium if you participate. Free classes by the public safety officers in defensive driving and personal protection. A system-wide credit union. Discounts through cell phone companies. The list goes on and on.

Really excited about working here!!