Want to be a successful preceptor? Get organized!
Organization and planning are the keys to successful precepting of medical students in a community family practice setting, according to speakers at a Consultations in Career Development session held during Assembly.
The session, titled "Basic Teaching Skills for Community Preceptors," provided attendees with the basic knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed to be a role-model preceptor and to improve their teaching and evaluation abilities. The faculty speakers for the session were Kent J. Sheets, PhD, associate professor and director of educational development at the University of Michigan Department of Family Medicine in Ann Arbor, and Richard D. Kiovsky, MD, associate clinical professor of family medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis.
"Organization and planning are essential to a good clerkship experience for both the student and the preceptor," Dr. Kiovsky said. "Nothing is more important than getting on the right foot. Remember, you never get a second chance to make a good first impression."
The speakers listed some specific rules to follow to make sure the preceptorship goes successfully:
- Let your staff know that a medical student is coming for a clerkship before the student arrives.
- On the first day, take time to sit down with the student in private and ask about the student's learning expectations, educational experiences, and personal background. Tell him or her about your own expectations and background.
- Introduce the student to the staff and make him or her feel special, welcome, and part of the team.
- At the end of each day, go over the next day's schedule and prepare the student for seeing patients who offer some educational benefits. Suggest the student do some related reading at home to prepare for the patients.
- Ask your student to jot down questions on notecards as you see patients, so you can answer the questions when time permits in the daily schedule.
- Know your student's abilities and be specific about what you want him or her to do when seeing a patient. For example, tell the student you want a history or a specific type of examination or a differential diagnosis.
- Give the student feedback on performance at the end of the day. Review charts with the student to spark your memory.
- The student doesn't have to see every one of your patients with you. Some patients may not want to be seen by a student -- and you might overload the student. Have other learning activities ready, such as reading or lab work, while you're seeing these patients.
- Include the student in other activities in your professional and personal life, such as hospital staff meetings, civic activities, or family gatherings.
- Review your student's initial expectations at the midpoint of the clerkship and evaluate how well the experience is meeting his or her needs.
- On the last day of the clerkship, review the student's progress and give positive feedback.
- No more that a week after the clerkship ends, send your final evaluation to the medical school.
- If your student has shown particular interest in family practice, send him or her a note in a couple of months to encourage a choice of family practice as a career.
The entire experience can be rewarding for both the preceptor and the student, the speakers concluded. Family physicians give their time to serve as preceptors because "to teach is to learn again," they said.
- FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.