June 2000 • Volume 6 • Number 6
Student preceptors
To the editor:
This letter responds to the article "Can Students Add Value to Your Practice?" in the April FP Report. The article reports the proposals of Drs. Kallenberg and Schwenk regarding "mak[ing] the most of students while teaching them." They present possible activities for preceptors to assign to their students.
What is concerning about a good number of the proposals is their similarity to the dreaded "scut work," which the medical institution has so greatly striven to eliminate. What is more, these same proposals do well to assist with revenue generation for the preceptor, but appear at first glance to fail in providing a meaningful education to the medical students in their charge.
The desires of the preceptor to educate students while cultivating a thriving practice must be met. However, when one of these desires overtakes the other, someone loses out, be it the patient or the student. I applaud the attempts to rectify this situation, and I also feel that many of these proposals have tremendous potential if altered. For example, rather than finding and organizing patient education materials, students could synthesize materials based upon literature searches and preceptor input. In addition, students could provide valuable education to patients regarding their medical conditions.
The balance of patient care, private practice and medical education is often a difficult one, but with the combined efforts of practitioners, patients and students, it is quite attainable.
Eric Anderson, M4
Coralville, Iowa
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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