Establishing and maintaining competency.

The recruitment and hiring processes are crucial to quality assurance and cost containment in home healthcare. Competency-based orientation programs designed to provide outcome-focused orientation for the intravenous nurse who is new to homecare will benefit both the new employee and the homecare agency. Development of such a program is discussed, and consideration is given to program design, program evaluation, and ongoing employee education. Sample employee and program assessment tools are provided.