Workplace orientation

Workplace orientation enables doctors to work safely and with confidence in their new position. It aims to familiarise the doctor with their physical, administrative and clinical work environment. Content covered typically includes information such as administrative structure, personnel issues, ordering of supplies, policies affecting emergency procedures, professional conduct, clinical protocols, demonstrations on the use of unfamiliar equipment and an overview of professional resources and services. Some employers may prefer to treat the clinical components as an independent orientation activity.

If possible, you should provide an orientation handbook to the doctor and ask them to read it prior to their commencement in the position. This will give them an opportunity to do some background reading and get a head start on the familiarisation process. But don't use this as an excuse to forego a proper orientation process. There is no adequate substitute for practical orientation.

If you don't currently have such documentation, you might like to look at other examples to get an idea of how to put one together. Obviously, you will need to adapt any example material to your particular practice setting. A few examples of workplace orientation materials/courses are listed below:

Preparation for Employment Course, Centre for International Medical Graduates, Queensland Health
Rural GP Practice Orientation, Tasmanian General Practice Divisions, Rural Workforce Support
Procedural Guidelines for Fellows and Registrars 2005, Mater Health Services. This page also has other orientation information that may be of interest.

The Department of Health and Ageing is also developing a self-paced, online, orientation training program that will cover some of this kind of information. It is due for release later in 2006. Details on this training program will be published here when the website is available.