2006 OPEN FORUM Abstracts
Personality Types and the Orientation Experience
Julie Jordan, RRT.
Thomas Malinowski, RRT, FAARC. Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, VA.
Background The orientation experience for new employees can have a powerful effect on
their perception of the general dynamics of a department. Additionally, the Preceptors who are assigned
new employees may themselves have positive or negative impressions of their
precepting time. We hypothesized that
different personality types may influence the teaching and learning experience
for both the Preceptor and Orientee during the orientation period. Methods 32 subjects (22
Preceptors, 10 Orientees) participated in the study. Orientees were defined as newly hired within
the past year. Preceptors were
identified as individuals > 3 years experience and traditionally responsible
for orientation or training of new employees or student clinicians. Subjects' voluntarily completed three tools:
A Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality profile, a demographics
survey, and a 10 question, 5 point Likert survey questionnaire designed to
gather information on perceptions of the orientation experience (respect,
knowledge and experience, educational opportunities, protocol
direction/application, positive feedback, corrective feedback,
duration-of-orientation, teamwork, shared goals, overall impression). Orientees were asked to complete a survey on
at least two of their Preceptors, Preceptors asked to complete a survey on at
least two of the Orientees. Subjects
were blinded to their evaluators. A
"highly positive" experience was classified as an overall score of
≥45/50. Results 14 of the
16-MB personality types were identified within our subject population. An equal number of Preceptors were typed as
introvert vs. extrovert (10/11), with tendencies towards intuitive vs. sensing
(13/9). Orientees tended towards extrovert vs. introvert (7/3) with strong
tendencies towards sensing vs. intuitive (9/1). The differences in mean survey score was
statistically significant (<0.05) between Orientees (45.8±5.4 SD) and
Preceptors (41.9±8.6 SD) implying a higher satisfaction level within Orientees
than Preceptors. A "highly positive" experience was described by 19 of 22
Orientees (87%). A "highly positive"
experience was described by 20 of 43 Preceptors (47%). Preceptors ranked
".right amount of time required for orientation" (3.7 ± 1.15 SD) and ".provided
feedback" (3.95 ± 0.97 SD) as the lowest responses. Orientees ranked ".part of
the team" (4.0 ± 1.0SD) and ".received feedback" (4.1 ± 1.2 SD) as lowest
responses. No discernible trends were
noted in MB personality pairings for highly satisfied or dissatisfied
preceptors and orientees. Conclusions
Orientees were generally more satisfied with the orientation experience than
Preceptors, regardless of MB personality type.