Responses

Authors

  • Janetta MacPhail
  • Margaret F. Munro

Abstract

In her article on "Orientation to Academia: The Socialization of New Faculty," Professor Mills addresses a very important topic. In recent years a great deal of emphasis has been placed on orientation of new staff in health care agencies, which has certainly become an expectation of the majority of new graduates from nursing programs. Many articles have been published in nursing journals and books have been published on the topic of staff development, of which orientation is one component. The importance of orientation for new staff is reflected in the fact that it is bargained for in collective agreements, which suggests that administrators in health care agencies may not place as much importance on orientation as do staff nurses. A good deal has been written and stated by nursing service administrators and hospital administrators about the cost of orientation that is being assumed by health care agencies. While most deans/directors of basic nursing programs and most faculty undoubtedly expect that their new graduates will receive a proper orientation to the health care agencies in which they choose to practise, similar emphasis has not been placed on orientation of new faculty in university nursing programs. At least this is not reflected in the literature or in programs presented at educational conferences Nonetheless, it is possible that nursing facilities have placed more importance on orientation of new faculty because of their service orientation than have faculties in other disciplines within the university.

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Published

1983-04-13

Issue

Section

Articles