Agency Help Guide for CNOs, Nursing Supervisors, Nursing Schedulers, and Managers
Summary
The purpose of this guide is to provide a basic understanding of how to work with agency staff at your hospital or a market hospital. Please bear in mind that as a Nursing Supervisor, you are a valuable asset to your hospital and play a crucial role in keeping operations flowing. We understand the importance of IT functionality in assisting your team. FAQs, shortcuts, and links are included in this article to help your role in assisting your colleagues. Please save this link for your reference or search the ticketing system with the keyword "Agency Help."
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Who can onboard Agency staff?
A: It was decided by the Corporate Director of Nursing and Corporate Director of IT that onboarding is limited to certain people. CNOs, CEOs, CTOs, HR, and Nursing Schedulers can onboard Agency people. The form is located in the Service Catalog under "Agency Nurse Onboarding" found here. You must have the exact job title mentioned, as the ticketing system won't allow access otherwise.
- The Chief Clinical Officer has allowed Nursing Supervisors to onboard. 1/29/24.
Q: Do Agency staff have the same access as hospital employees?
A: For the most part, yes. Because they are considered temporary, the company excludes email and DUO security.
Q: Why do Agency staff have an expiration on their accounts?
A: Agency staff are considered temps. To ensure HIPAA security, the IT department puts an expiration on accounts. In the case of Agency personnel, there are no offboarding requests, so this method helps to manage accounts. It is the responsibility of the hospital to manage Agency personnel. If an account expires, you can use the Agency Person Extension Form found here to extend the account of an Agency staff. Disabled versus locked accounts:
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Disabled accounts - when an account expires, it disables the account. It means the user can no longer access the computer. The user will see a message on the login screen explaining the account is expired or disabled. You will need to extend the account. Please visit the "Agency Person Account Extension" in the Service Catalog to extend the account.
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Locked account - this applies to anyone's computer account. It means too many invalid passwords were used and it locked the account. Please allow 15 minutes for the account to auto-unlock. If the user is still unsuccessful after 15 minutes, there is a good chance they don't know their password and it requires a ticket for a password reset.
Q: How do I know if the Agency staff's computer account is expired?
A: You can access the reports found here. This report is emailed to CNOs and Nursing Supervisors every Wednesday. This report is located on the Landing page in the IT section called reports.
Q: Who can extend the expiration of Agency staff accounts?
A: CNOs, CEOs, Managers, HR, Nursing Supervisors, and Nursing Schedulers. The form is located in the Service Catalog under "Agency Person Account Extension" found here.
Q: Why do you have hours for Agency requests?
A: Requests are considered an IT administrative function that is processed during corporate business hours. Due to our small size, we operate during the busiest time, the day shift to handle all the hospitals we manage. To be blunt, we just don't have the manpower to process requests throughout the evening. For guaranteed processing, please ensure you are submitting before the deadline. This is found on the form or you can click here for hours.
Q: I have an Agency staff who worked at the other market hospital and now is working at my hospital. How do they access our system?
A: The good news is the Agency staff already has an account. It doesn't matter where their account was created. The difference is access to your hospital. The same user ID and password will work. If they don't remember it, a ticket must be submitted. Agency personnel will most likely need the WellSky location updated. You can visit "Employee Transfer or Access Request" in the Service Catalog and choose your hospital found here.
Q: I have an Agency staff who is locked out of WellSky. Can I reset their password?
A: Unfortunately, no. You can only unlock the account. You may see a button to reset a password, but it's been turned off due to HIPAA security. Only IT can reset passwords.
Q: I have an Agency staff who is unable to access Pyxis.
A: Pyxis access is automatically given to Nurses except for CNAs. This permission is replicated to Pyxis. The Pharmacy department must finish configuring the account. An Agency staff must sign into a computer first before accessing Pyxis. More details about Pyxis are found here.
Q: Is the computer login the same for WellSky?
A: It could be, but as more hospitals are added, the username uniqueness wears off. It is crucial to provide separate login credentials for both computer and WellSky accounts. The individual who conducted the onboarding process must share the login details with the person assisting the Agency staff. In case a personal email address was used during onboarding, the WellSky credentials will be sent to that email address of the Agency staff.
Q: Do Agency staff have company email?
A: No, but they do have an email address. This means they don't have a license to access email, but they have an email address to access the Landing. E.g., JSmith@yourhospital.com. Please be advised that if you have an Agency staff who worked at another market hospital they could have that hospital's email address. If that's the case, you can look them up in Step 1 of the Agency Nurse Onboarding form to view their email.
Q: Can I submit Agency requests after the deadline?
A: You can, but there is no guarantee it will be processed. It should get processed first thing in the morning.
Q: An Agency Staff worked here before, but I can't find their name to extend their account. What do I do?
A: This could happen if the hospital allowed their account to expire. Our ticketing system syncs with their computer account and could disable their account where you can't see them in the system. You will need to create a ticket stating you have an Agency Staff that you can't extend.
Shortcuts
Click on any of the pictures to navigate to the form in the Service Catalog. Some of you may not have access to these forms.
Instructions
1. Onboarding or extension - How to onboard an Agency staff or extend an account is found here.
2. Reports - How to look at the reports to find account expirations.
- Open the browser until you see the Landing. Scroll down to the IT section. You'll find a folder called Reports.
- Click "Account Expired Users" for accounts that have past expiration.
- Click "Soon-to-expire user accounts" to view accounts that are about to expire.
3. Search Agency Staff - How to find an Agency staff that may already exist in the system. There are two ways.
Tips
1. Ensure you receive Agency credentials from the requester right away and have that Agency staff log in first thing, especially in the evenings when there is limited to no support. You should receive a computer log-in from the manager and WellSky credentials from the manager or requester.
2. Please keep in mind that computer log-ins and WellSky log-ins are not the same. These are two different systems with two different log-ins. Although they could be the same, the accounts do not sync together.
3. An Agency staff can skip a computer log-in by using a WOW cart instead. They can access WellSky this way. However, if they need access to Pyxis, they will still need to log into a computer and set a password.
4. Since Agency staff don't have company email, they seem to get hung up in signing into the browser to access the Landing. Instead of focusing on the Landing, have them access WellSky through the "Managed Favorites" in the upper left corner of the browser.
5. If your manager or requester forgets to give you WellSky credentials for your Agency staff, you can search for the user in WellSky using the WellSky unlock instructions found here. The password always defaults to their user ID (all caps) if they never signed in before.
The IT department thanks you for all you do to assist your colleagues.