Organization is Key

Organization of your work space, reference material, office supplies, special forms, and a multitude of other items accumulated during your orientation is key to your survival. At this time, having been through your first week of orientation, you have learned that you either already have or will be receiving an enormous amount of information in a very short period of time. The way you organize this will influence your ability to succeed.

When I started, I was given a box and about 10 3 ring binders. Those binders were filled with various training materials that I had yet to understand. Later, after about 3-6 months of employment, I came to realize that many of these items were duplications that were given a different times in my training cycle. This may have been helpful to the trainer, but not necessarily to me. If possible, early on in your training, begin to review what you have been given considering where the duplications lie and why they are duplicated. It may be to teach you that the Federal Regulations for Home Health are needed at 2-3 different points in the process. The question is, why have so many copies of the same thing?

Here is my first real helpful piece of advice. Take one set of the Federal and State regulations and rules and set aside a binder for home health where you can put these. Place at the front of this binder, the cross-walk listing regs with both federal and state numbers. Behind this, place the federal regs and then the state regs. Put each sheet into a sheet protector for this will soon become your bible. Take this binder with you to all surveys, including during orientation.

That is enough information for one day. Do this early on in your studies and it will prove to be an invaluable tool. Having to look in too many places and through too many different binders, on the other hand, can frustrate you beyond measure.

Hope this helps.