Healthcare Onboarding Checklist Template for Facilities

Finding the perfect employee for your facility is the first step in providing high-quality patient care. Streamlining the orientation process for your newly hired staff can be a challenging next step. Create a healthcare onboarding checklist to ensure your staff are prepared with the knowledge and tools they need for success.

The following template provides examples of healthcare onboarding best practices, with checklist items that can help your employees start off strong.

Why Is the Hospital Onboarding Process Important?

For many employees, the start of orientation is exciting and represents a new stage in their career. This is the first interaction they will have with company administration, and familiarizing them with your unique culture and mission is important.

The first step in assisting your new employee is helping them complete their healthcare onboarding checklist. This is usually performed in multiple sittings at different stages of orientation.

Some tasks, including drug screens, must be done prior to starting work. Other tasks, like reviewing patient care procedures, are completed during the first few weeks on the job.

Healthcare facilities hire many different types of employees, and it’s difficult to know what to include in a healthcare onboarding checklist. For nurses in hospitals, it might start with administrative paperwork and transition to department assessments. A home health onboarding checklist might focus more on verifying safe driving records and reviewing chain-of-command.

Facilities can begin with a basic checklist, and departments can add additional items for tasks pertaining to their unique setting. The following template provides a great starting point.

Healthcare Onboarding Checklist Template

A well made onboarding checklist will contain these three categories:

• Administrative Orientation — Legally required documents and forms

• Facility Orientation — Policy and procedure overview specific to your company

• Unit/Department Orientation — Check-offs specific to each team

All onboarding templates should be well organized and easy to follow, and can be stored online for easy reference. Some facilities link submitted forms and checklists to each employee’s online portal for later review.

Let’s dive into the different checklist categories to help you better understand what types of tasks your employee should complete during the onboarding process.

Administrative Orientation

In this section, list human resources tasks required prior to the start of the first day on the job. This tasklist should be consistent for all new employees and is generally the same for all states and governing boards.

Review Qualifications and Certifications

It’s important to verify any care provider licenses prior to introducing the new employee to the patient unit. Ensuring that the staff member is qualified and capable of serving your patients is important to review in the early stages of the onboarding process. This section is especially important for doctor and nurse onboarding.

Potential items to review:

• Care provider licenses (MD, RN, etc.)
• Certifications (CNA, phlebotomy technician, massage therapist, etc.)
• Degree transcripts (university grades and courses taken, high school diploma, etc.)
• Employee references (university professor, hospital manager, colleague, etc.)

Criminal Background Check and Drug Screen

Now that you’ve confirmed that your employee is who they say they are, you’ll want to make sure that they have a clean record. Facilities need to ensure their employee hasn’t violated any federal or state healthcare laws in the past. Companies that unknowingly hire past offenders could be at risk for heavy fines.

Potential items to review:

• Criminal background check
• Employee fingerprint cards
• Drug screen
• Physical exam (for roles requiring heavy lifting or exposure to harmful substances)
• Exclusion screening

Employee Personal Details

In this section of the healthcare onboarding checklist, take note of your team member’s personal information. Having these details is important in emergency situations and for distribution of legal documents.

Potential items to review:

• Full name (including previous names)
• Social Security number
• Mobile phone number
• Personal email
• Home/mailing address
• Emergency contact details and next-of-kin

Facility Orientation

It’s important to start with a brief introduction to the employee’s role in this section. Provide a summary of your company’s mission, vision, and values to help employees get a sense of what working at your facility is like.

Employee Handbook

Reviewing the rules and guidelines for your facility prior to the employee starting work is important in ensuring awareness of company standards. Making this handbook available online for future reference is helpful.

Potential items to review:

• Job description, role, and responsibilities
• Mission, vision, and values of your company
• Facility location(s)
• Uniform policy
• Standard operating procedures for emergencies and natural disasters
• Employee parking procedures

Payment and Benefit Forms

Employees appreciate a streamlined payment process. Letting them know how and when they will be paid is important to maintaining staff satisfaction. Federal and state tax form review can be found in this section.

Additionally, it’s important to review benefit information during orientation, as there are usually strict deadlines for enrolling.;

Potential items to review:

• Direct deposit initiation
• Tax forms (I-9, W-4)
• Benefits guide and timeline for submission
• Employee assistance program

Identification Badge and Online Accounts

Now that your employee is ready to start work, it’s important that they have the required identification and online account access necessary for working at your facility.

Potential items to review:

• Photo ID or hospital badge
• Electronic Medical Record (EMR) login
• Work email address
• Automated drug distribution system login

Unit/Department Orientation

This section of the healthcare onboarding checklist is tailored to the needs and expectations of each healthcare department. Some employees will have patient-facing clinical roles, while others might do their job in a separate office. Each employee needs to know the skills and tools for completing their job safely and efficiently.

Unit Orientation

Before your team member can start working, they’ll need to know where things are. Familiarize them with supply rooms, staff rest areas, and management offices. Help them to locate safety equipment or alarms in case of emergency.

Potential items to review:

• Staff restrooms
• Meal and break areas
• Medication, supply, and equipment rooms (make sure to distribute access codes or keys)
• Unit nurse manager, clinical nurse leader, and charge nurse offices
• Fire extinguishers, code blue alarms, emergency exits, hospital security office
• Hospital phone book or call sheet

Distribution of Equipment

Facilities often distribute basic tools to help employees do their jobs. Many departments require their staff to have appropriate protective wear in case of contagious disease or chemical spill, which requires proper sizing. Make sure the employee has access to these supplies at the start of their unit orientation.

Potential items to review:

• Respiratory mask fitting
• Protective eyewear distribution
• Patient care equipment (stethoscope, scissors, etc.)
• Cell phone or pager

Unit Competencies

In order to provide safe care, staff members must understand how to use the equipment required to care for your patient population. Each unit has different standards for care, so reviewing these specifics will help set early expectations and goals.

Potential items to review:

• Documentation/charting requirements
• Timekeeping protocol (clocking in and out)
• Emergency procedures
• Chain-of-command
• Communication preferences (pager, cellphone, EMR messaging, etc.)
• Medical device check-off (glucometers, vital sign monitors, IV pumps, weighing scales, etc.)

Let Us Help Build and Onboard Your Exceptional Team

Creating a healthcare onboarding checklist ensures that the professionals you hire and train are successful in your facility. Sometimes, recruiting the right employee can be the toughest part of the hiring process. Let IntelyCare help you build your team as we can match you with committed, high-quality health care professionals ready for the job.