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Orientation Phase 1: Preparation & templates

Everything to get you ready for onboarding new clinicians to your hospital

Ben Rowland avatar
Written by Ben Rowland
Updated over 2 weeks ago

The most important steps are about planning. Once you have this in place, you will have a repeatable & measurable process for any admin to follow. We recommend starting this 1 month before orientation if it's your first time.


Step 1 - Heads Up Email

When you invite clinicians to Med App, they will receive an SMS the first time to download the app. By providing context that this is happening, you'll ensure clinicians are confident to download the app.

We've done the hard work to design this template for you. All you need to do is copy it, insert your hospital logo and send it to the incoming cohort.

How to use our template

  1. Click 'view template' below

  2. Select all and copy

  3. Open your preferred email client & create a new email

  4. Paste the template into the email

  5. Add your hospital logo

  6. Add your contact details at the end of the email


Step 2 - Content review & updates

Consider the best way to identify the 20% of information that clinicians need 80% of the time.

  1. Consult with your DCT, JMO & SMO's to review the information on Med App from a clinical perspective (They should be part of your governance team).

  2. Questions to ask

    1. What information is not useful? (Delete it!)

    2. What needs updating?

    3. What is missing?

Review our checklist of best practice

Review your hospitals Med App content & directory against our Gold Star checklist

  • Align with AMC and NZMC JMO training standards

  • Include clinical feedback on what needs to be updated, what is missing or needs to be deleted

  • Remember - Med app is not a repository for all of your hospitals information.


Step 3 - Review your hospital welcome message (Mailout) & links

Why use mailouts instead of emails?

  • Mailouts have an 87% read rate compared to emails (~21%).

  • Audit trail for accreditation & reporting.

  • Reduced overheads with reusable templates, targeted reminders & scheduled communications.

  • Track completion of which clinicians viewed and signed onboarding.

Benefits for clinicians

  • Improved well-being with quick access to rotation information before arriving on-site

  • Better informed with important changes to policy, guidelines & roster changes

  • Improved confidence with quick access to procedural information, dosing charts and escalation strategies

Click to see what makes a good onboarding message


Step 4 - O-week schedule!

One of the most popular resources read by clinicians during 0-week, make sure it's easy to find information about their schedule and useful resources.

  • Create an article under your orientation folder to show clinicians what's happening for 0 - week

  • Schedule a push notification linking to the content (see below)

  • Use a mobile-friendly format (2 columns wide) for the best mobile readability

Content resources


Step 5 - Communication plan

Mobile push notifications (announcements) are a quick way of sending bite sized messages to clinicians. Messages can be scheduled ahead of time for the first few weeks of orientation or at any time.

Examples of push notifications

Examples of notifications to schedule in the first week

  • Remind clinicians where to find important information

  • Congratulate them on surviving their first week - linking to orientation survey

  • Remind them about important upcoming events, education sessions

  • Tell them about end of week drinks, social catch ups

  • Term changeover to update handover documents - link

How to use announcements

The recommended frequency of announcements is 2 - 7 notifications per week


Step 6 - Setup your orientation, wellbeing & education survey

Surveys create a quick way to gather clinicians' feedback on education or wellbeing

  • Keeping post-training surveys grouped with events.

  • Easily reuse and distribute templates

  • Quick downloadable data & reporting

How to create a survey template

In this step we are only setting up the survey, distributing and viewing results are covered in phase 2 & 3

Up Next: Onboarding clinicians to Med App and your Hospital

In this section, we discuss inviting clinicians to Med App, onboarding them to your hospital and providing links to critical resources so they can confidently hit the ground running.

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