Are the Health Unit Coordinators Trained Properly? (Video)

This is the story of how I became a Health Unit Coordinator.

I applied for the job online and was called in for an interview. Before the interview, I had to take a typing test. I took the test and passed, then interviewed and got the job. 

For the first two weeks of the job, the rest of the new HUCs and I were in a room for eight hours, learning medical terminology. Once we passed the medical terminology course, we moved on to the unit we would be working on and were put into a room to complete the required Computer-Based Learning (CBLs). Then, we were allowed on the floor to start our orientation.

If you want to be a Unit Clerk, you must pass a background and drug test. And then, you are sent to the floor for a rushed-through orientation with multiple people. 

How can a new HUC process all of this information, some of which is right and some of which is wrong, depending on who trained them?

How is that being trained properly?

Letting The Health Unit Coordinator Fail (Video)

About five years ago, I was sitting at the desk as a Health Unit Coordinator when a patient's wife spoke with me.

She explained that she was a HUC many years ago and had one foolproof way to guarantee job security.

"Don't teach the new HUCs everything that you know." She explained that they would get frustrated and quit if the new HUCs didn't know what they were doing. Or appear extremely incompetent and get fired.

More overtime for you.

I just sat there and listened to her, but I thought, what kind of person do you have to be to want to see another person fail? Especially someone who has bills, possibly a family, or other responsibilities. What kind of person are you?

I’ve never subscribed to that type of thinking. When I train someone new, I want them to know what I know. I encourage them to take notes. I introduced them to other staff members. I want them to become the Mama Bear of their unit. I want them to be so knowledgeable that they get compliments from staff and outsiders daily. I want them to be missed when they are not there. I want them to stay. I don't want to be training every six months. A unit/department cannot function properly with a high turnover.

I'm the most cheerful, helpful, and knowledgeable trainer when a new HUC needs to be orientated. And that’s because I don’t subscribe to the same thinking as the patient’s wife.

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