Four traveling nurses quit their assignments at Providence St. Joseph Hospital just one day after starting because they were unfamiliar with the Eureka, Calif.-based hospital's EHR system, the Times Standard reported Sept. 4.
Providence brought on six intensive care unit nurses, with four of the nurses quitting one day after their assignments began, the hospital said in a Sept. 1 media statement.
Providence St. Joseph Hospital CEO Roberta Luskin-Hawk, MD, said the nurses' departure was "an unfortunate and unique circumstance," and attributed their leaving to onboarding training challenges and the nurses' lack of familiarity with the hospital's EHR.
"The primary reason was that they were not familiar with our electronic medical record system — a system that is used by many hospitals," Dr. Luski-Hawk said. "Additionally, there were issues with the onboarding of these caregivers which created a challenge for them acclimating to our hospital."
The four nurses who quit claimed they did not receive access to the hospital's electronic charting system, a California Nurses Association spokesperson told the publication.
"The travelers were met without necessary resources, including access to the unit's electronic charting system and were immediately handed full patient assignments with little in the way of orientation," the spokesperson said. "So, four out of the six [travel nurses] quit. In the words of one of them, the travelers were 'thrown to the wolves' and with all the opportunities available to travelers these days, they just didn’t come back."