Improving new intern orientation

[whopper]

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I'm going to be the Chief at my program starting July. I was wondering what your programs do to help orient the new residents to their new jobs.

This is especially important to me because my Chief my intern year blew and didn't do much to help out the interns. Also in my program the senior residents don't work side by side with the interns so they got to learn things by baptism of fire.

So far I've done.doing the following...
-wrote the interns emails asking them to address any concerns they may have
-gave them a list of books that'll help them figure out what to do E.g. Psychiatry On Call
-Told them where to print out the commitment laws in NJ so they know how to handle this
-Will tell them how the vacation schedule works
-Will make a resident manual with clear guidelines on their responsibilities and include sample order sheets
-will assign them individually to a specific senior resident to address their concerns

Anyone here can think of other ideas? Anyone here an upcoming intern that has any ideas on what they'd like to see if they were coming into a new program?

 

[Anasazi23]

I'm going to be the Chief at my program starting July. I was wondering what your programs do to help orient the new residents to their new jobs.

This is especially important to me because my Chief my intern year blew and didn't do much to help out the interns. Also in my program the senior residents don't work side by side with the interns so they got to learn things by baptism of fire.

So far I've done.doing the following...
-wrote the interns emails asking them to address any concerns they may have
-gave them a list of books that'll help them figure out what to do E.g. Psychiatry On Call
-Told them where to print out the commitment laws in NJ so they know how to handle this
-Will tell them how the vacation schedule works
-Will make a resident manual with clear guidelines on their responsibilities and include sample order sheets
-will assign them individually to a specific senior resident to address their concerns

Anyone here can think of other ideas? Anyone here an upcoming intern that has any ideas on what they'd like to see if they were coming into a new program?

I think that's more than a lot of chiefs do, and that you're off to a great start.

I have plans to do the same regarding vacation. Hadn't thought of the mentor thing you mentioned. My program is small enough that I think that between me and the other chief, we could handle it.

I also put a good deal of time into a "survival guide" with a funny post-nuclear alternate 50's flavor to it. It goes over the basics, and has a great deal of information that normally isn't learned until a few months in...how do handle common annoying situations, important beeper numbers, and lots more.

Let me know if you come up with anything else.

 

[DrIng]

My suggestion would be including tips on general life survival as well:

How to know what is your job and what is someone else's

Key phrases (for example a new resident I know copped all sorts of grief because she didn't know how to word a statement to ED that a patient couldn't be transferred to another hosptial, because it was against the law for the order they were detained under... All this would have been avoided if she knew to say "But they need to be in a gazetted hospital and St Elesewhere's isn't gazetted. End of story.)

Life skills: Always eat, even if you have to do it while writing up notes, and carry a bottle of water so you don't get dehydrated.

 

[raspberry swirl]

i think you can rest easy knowing you've done the most important thing - you've contacted the interns to let them know they have a friendly ear on which to lay their concerns. all the other stuff is just bonus!