Literature Review

INTRODUCTION

When a health professional is fresh from College, he or she basically has theoretical knowledge and little practical experience. A similar case is for a health professional that has been working in a small health organisation and is now moving onto a bigger one. In a sense, orientation is one of the most important parts of the training of a health professional. Research studies have shown clearly that the orientation of new staff is directly proportional to the staff retention. From this observation, we can therefore say that good orientation of new workers reduces the rate of staff turn over. We can see from all this that orientation of new staff goes a long way in determining the level of motivation of the workers.

1. POSITION STATEMENT, ORIENTATION OF REGISTERED NURSES TO THE WORK PLACE- College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia

Review

This article portrays the view of the college, that poor orientation of new staff leads to them leaving the work place and the profession altogether. It is the view of the College that the orientation of the new health professional should evolve to match the ever-evolving health environment so that the health worker can easily fit in the new work environment without difficulty. If this is not one, then the worker may find the work environment tricky and difficult to copel with.

The college believes that it is the obligation of the health worker to make sure that he acquires the needed competency and that the responsibility of the employer is to provide fully funded and informative orientation. Orientation is defined as “a process by which an organisation acquaints employees with policies, procedures, philosophies, purposes and role expectations related to a new job.” (Page 1).

Strengths of this approach

This approach has some strengths and weaknesses due to the fact that it may not always apply. This is because the work environments are different and keep on changing. Below are some of the strengths of this approach that come out clearly

• This approach helps in refining the skills of the new staff. This is because these incoming staff members in the health organisation already have the theoretical know-how and all they need is to be shown is how to interact with the real working enviroment
• This approach also goes a long way in creating a highly motivated team of workers. This is because when a worker is properly oriented, he or she gets to like the work environment  which is important in motivation
• The approach creates a good working relationship between the workers and the managent. A worker will always develop a liking for a supervisor who gives him proper orientation, since he makes his work pretty easier

Weaknesses

• This approach suggests that the rate of staff turn over is very highly dependent on the orientation of the new staff. This may not always be the case. In most cases, a worker is expected the working environment when he or she is already working with the organisation. This may not make the worker leave the organisation, especially if the working terms are good.
• This approach does not analyse the factors that may affect the actual orientation process

 ORIENTATION: TRANSITION TO PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING

Review

According to this article, orientationto a new work place is a psychological process that occurs in phases. In this approach, orientation is not just a mere process entailing a simple introduction into a new work environment. Rather, it involves a psychological plug out from an old world and plug in to a new world. It occurs in the following three stages:

i)  The letting go stage

In this stage, one has to let go the old reality. This means in this case that one leaves fellow students and sets himself to join a new reality of the work place. In the case of the employee who has to shift jobs, it involves leaving the old reality of leaving the old place of work and joining a new work place

ii) The ‘neutral zone’ stage

According to William Bridges, the neutral stage is ‘no man’s land’ betweenm the letting go stage and the final stage. The new environment doesn’t seem comfortable yet. In this stage, workers get discouraged fast because of the difficulty in adapting to the new work environment.It is a stage in which the mind of the worker is not yet stable. The stage entails learning new ideas and tecniques in the place of work

iii)  The Final Stage

In this stage, the worker has already learnt the working environment and has already learnt to cope up. Not all workers make it to the final stage from the neutral stage. This is because some will give up owing to the difficulty in coping with the new environment

Strengths

• It is easy to analyse workers in this approach since it comprises of three easy steps
• It explains the behaviour of a new worker in way that is easy to understand and this is important information to any employer
• This approach does not advise on how to help a worker shorten his or her neutral stage. This is like identifying a problem that has no solution
• It may not be very usiful to a person who is looking for very detailed information about recruitment. This is because it is a simplified approach

Weaknesses

COMPARISON:

The approach number 1 analyses the importance of orientation in a health organisation, while the second mainly explains orientation in three stages. The two approaches give details of the orientation process but in different approaches.

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