Orientation program for postgraduate residents: a feedback of the participants

 Introduction: To get feedback from the participant residents of 3-days Orientation Program (OP) for MD/MS resident about- i) the usefulness, content, relevance, importance and facilitation of OP and ii) good points of OP and areas for improvement. 
Methods: The feedback was taken on questionnaire contained 9 questions- 6 were close and 3 open ended about orientation program. The questions were related to usefulness, content, relevance, facilitation, relevance of opening session, overview of program, specifics of program, importance of college and hospital visit, good points of OP, area of improvement and for additional comments. 
Results: The residents found OP useful and relevant, the subject content pertinent and facilitation very good. Overall rating was very high (8.13±1.23) on rating scale 1-10 (1=poor, 10= excellent). They perceived opening session, overview of program session, and specifics of program session of highly relavent and recognized the impor­tance of college and hospital visit. They mentioned that OP was good opportunity for acquaintance with faculty members, staff and peers, knowing about academic curriculum & activities, rules, regulations, duties & respon­sibilities, mandatory trainings and courses, writing thesis proposal, understanding what is to be done in three years and for adjustment in the institute. 
Conclusion: Overall OP was very good and better than expected and residents suggested to discuss thesis writing in detail and provide detail information about administrative as­pects and financials knowhow. Professor Thomas V Chacko Director, PSG-FAIMER Regional Institute commented “Good Orientation for the PGs. What they would normally come to know in 2 months informally has been done systematically in a short time.”

Post-graduation in medicine is a study phase of training when a medical graduate is anticipated to gain knowledge, acquire skills under supervision in a particular specialty and transform attitude, so the postgraduate resident may become competent of mastering & functioning independently in particular field of study. Usually and often, new medical graduates begin this phase without any clear aim and objective. 2 Essence of education is to orient the candidate about training at the beginning of study phase. To get familiarize the postgraduate residents of first batch of Doctor of Medicine (MD) & Master of Surgery (MS) with their tasks and assignments during three years of study period, Health Professional Education and Research Center (HPERC), Chitwan Medical College (CMC) Bharatpur organized orientation program (OP). The aims of the OP were 1) to comprehend residents about the curriculum and 2) aquaint residents about the facilities and working environment both in college and hospital. The objective of this study was to get feedback from the participant residents about-i) the usefulness, content, relevance, importance and facilitation of OP and ii) good points of OP and areas for improvement. Overview of academic activities, Overview of skills development courses, Overview of training workshops, Overview of thesis process, Overview of assessment and Exposure to specific competencies.

Session VI-Feedback Session
Both verbal and the written feedback were taken from the participants. The questionnaire for written feedback was designed to judge the perception of the participants. Written informed consent was taken from the participants for publication of the data of written feedback.

The questionnaire
The questionnaire contained 9 questions-first six were close ended and last three open ended. The question one was on rating the orientation program for its usefulness, content, relevance, facilitation and overall rating (scale1-10; 1 poor and 10 excellent). The questions two was about the relevance of opening session (Session I), the questions 5 about the relevance of overview of program (Session IV) and the questions 6 about the relevance of Specifics of Program (Session V). While questions three and four were about the importance of visit to college and hospital respectively. The questions two, five and six were rated at Likert scale 1-4 (4= highly relevant, 3= relevant, 2= to some extent relevant, 1= not relevant). The questions three and four were rated at Likert scale 1-4 (4= very important, 3= moderately important, 2= to some extent important, 1= not important). The question seven was about good points of workshop, question eight on area of improvement and question nine for additional comments.

Data Entry & Statistical Analysis
The collected data was checked for completeness, accuracy and consistency. The collected data The questions 3 and 4 were for rating college and hospital visit respectively rated at Likert scale 1-4.

RESULTS
Eighteen residents of 1st year MD/MS PG's-seven from general surgery, five from internal medicine, three from clinical pathology, two from clinical psychiatry and one from General Practice & Emergency Medicine participated in the program. Fifteen residents consented to provide feedback. The response rate was 83.33%.
The residents rated the orientation program for its usefulness, content, relevance, facilitation and overall rating on scale1-10 (1 poor and 10 excellent). (Table 3) The questions 2, 5, and 6 were related to relevance of opening session (Session I), overview of program (Session IV), and Specifics of Program (Session V) respectively rated on Likert scale 1-4. ( Table 2)  Opening session (Session I) 0 1 (6.7) 10 (66.7) 4 (26.7) 5 Overview of program (Session IV) 0 0 9 (60.0) 6 (40) 6 Specifics of Program (Session V) 0 0 9 (60.0) 6 (40) The questions 3, and 4 were related to importance of college visit (Session II) and hospital visit (Session III) respectively rated on Likert scale 1-4. (Table 3) Hospital Visit (session iii) 0 0 6 (40.0) 9 (60) The question seven was about good points of orientation program; the participant residents shared their perception about good points (Table 4). The question nine was about additional comments on orientation program; the participant residents' additional comments mentioned below: 1.
Overall orientation program was very good 2.
Program was better than expected

3.
Provide detail information about administrative aspects and financials knowhow.

DISCUSSION
Postgraduate medical academic institutions worldwide conduct orientation program for their residents at the beginning of residency. 2  This study highlights the feedback provided by the participant residents of orientation program at the end of orientation program.
The residents found the OP very useful and relevant; the subject content of OP was pertinent and The question eight was about areas for improvement in orientation program; the participant residents shared their perception about areas for improvements (Table 5.) Table 5

No (%)
Discuss thesis writing in detail 4 (26.7) Make program brief 2 (13.3) Content could have been more in detail 1 (6.7) Provide Handout of sessions 1 (6.7) Discuss about duties and responsibilities in detail 1 (6.7) Information about books to be studied and referred 1 (6.7) Make program more interactive 1 (6.7) Provide short break in between sub-sessions 1 (6.7) facilitation was very good. Overall rating for OP by residents was very high 8.13 ± 1.23 on rating scale 1-10 (1=poor, 10= excellent).
The residents perceived opening session, session on overview of program, and session about specifics of program highly relevant. The residents very much recognized the importance both college and hospital visit. The residents suggested to discuss thesis writing in detail and provide detail information about administrative aspects and financials knowhow.
Overall orientation program was very good and program was better than expected, they felt. The OP schedule with subject content was shared with Professor Thomas V Chacko Director, PSG-FAIMER Regional Institute, through PSG-FAIMERINSTITUTE@ listserv.ecfmg.org. His comments were: "Good Orientation for the PGs. What they would normally come to know in 2months informally has been done systematically in a short time. You can also consider sharing with them the expected benchmarked EPAs and core competencies along with milestones to be achieved in years 1,2 &3; the system of documenting progression in performance as above; the concept of PBLI (practice based learning and improvement), Reflection on learning and performance and importance of being a reflective practitioner etc."