Right from the start: the family practice orientation study

Orientation to a residency program introduces residents to the essential functions of their duties, clarifies expectations, and acclimates them to a new social group. This study identified the orientation goals of family practice residency directors and compared those goals to the perceived needs of first-year family practice residents.

We surveyed program directors and PGY-1 residents at 100 accredited family practice residency programs. Questionnaires obtained descriptive information about orientation programs and resident demographics and assessed directors' goals and residents' needs from orientations.

The orientation goal ranked most highly by directors was development of group cohesion. The need ranked most highly by residents was introduction to call duties and inpatient problems. Ranked responses of each group were not well associated.

The orientation goals of program directors and the reported orientation needs of residents were poorly associated. Most directors chose nonclinical areas as their most important goals for orientation. In contrast, most residents valued clinically related information during orientation to residency.