New hires receive too much system detail before learning daily tasks
Clarify ownership and the expected next handoff before creating more work.
New-hire onboarding
Epic New Employee Training: What Staff Should Learn First
A practical order for teaching new healthcare staff the workflows they need first, with emphasis on ownership, handoffs, exceptions and escalation.
What this often looks like
Common symptoms
Staff know navigation but not local routing rules
Clarify ownership and the expected next handoff before creating more work.
Exceptions are learned informally from whoever is nearby
Clarify ownership and the expected next handoff before creating more work.
New employees repeat errors that a one-page SOP could prevent
Clarify ownership and the expected next handoff before creating more work.
First checks
Work through these before escalating blindly.
- Start with login/navigation only to the level needed for the role
- Teach the highest-frequency workflows next
- Explain where each task goes after the employee completes their part
- Teach escalation and exception rules before rare features
- Provide a short role-specific reference that reflects local policy
Ownership questions
- Which tasks must this role perform every day?
- Which queues or pools must they understand?
- Which exceptions require a supervisor?
- Which access problems belong to IT rather than training?
Avoid making the problem worse
Do not use a workaround as the default process.
- Teaching generic features the employee will never use
- Treating screenshots as substitutes for workflow explanation
- Sharing credentials during training
- Teaching undocumented workarounds as standard practice
Security and privacy boundary. Do not send HelpEpic patient names, DOBs, MRNs, insurance identifiers, screenshots, records, passwords, tokens or other confidential information. Access, outages, security incidents, protected configuration changes and patient-specific clinical decisions belong with your organization’s authorized teams.
Related workflow topics