Faculty orientation within departments of family medicine.

As new faculty members in a large university-based department of family medicine, the authors were struck by the absence of a structured orientation program to help new faculty enter the world of academic family medicine. In response to a perceived need for such a program, a national survey of family medicine was conducted. In addition, 50 departments of a local university and ten local businesses were surveyed. The results of this survey, as well as a conceptual framework for an orientation program, are presented.