Clinical Skills II Course Overview and Preceptor Preparation( continued)
a written evaluation at various time intervals, including mid-year and end-of-year of student’ s clinical progress. Evaluation will be sent out through email.
The NIH article, How to be an Effective Preceptor,( May- June, 2010), offers various suggestions to the aspiring preceptor, including:
• Establish a teaching environment with an appropriate match between student and preceptor.
• Communicate with everyone involved, as it is key to ensuring a successful teaching arrangement.
• Tailor teaching to the student’ s needs by adapting to each student’ s educational needs, goals and learning style.
• Share teaching responsibilities as preceptors, partners, staff, patients and students themselves can all be part of the teaching team.
• Keep observation and teaching encounters brief by dividing observation and teaching into short, focused time segments.
• Broaden student responsibilities by maximizing their educational experience and fully utilize their skills in patient care.
• Assuredly, each of these suggestions may not apply to every practice setting, so preceptors should consider which strategies work best for the students and themselves.
A positive teaching experience begins with an appropriate match between student and preceptor. Make sure the educational programs you work with know your personality and work-style preferences. The programs should also know the makeup of your practice, such as patient population, and the learning experiences you can offer students, such as different types of procedures.
Overall, the experience will allow students to:
• Enhance and apply the skills learned in Clinical Skills 1 to the clinical setting.
• Learn about the healthcare disparity challenges faced by patients in underserved and underresourced communities and the available resources and ways to address those health care needs.
This article was developed in part from a PowerPoint training presentation.
• Have students see patients that you know well or who would appreciate the extra time and attention from the student may be good selections.
• Have the student observe an entire encounter between you and a patient. This is especially beneficial if you have the opportunity to demonstrate specific interviewing or exam techniques.
• Observe the student for an entire patient visit. Create your note while the student takes the history and ask additional questions or assist with the exam as necessary.
• See the patient after the student presents the history to you but before the exam is completed. Assist the student with the exam or demonstrate.
• Take the history while the student listens, and have the student perform the exam while you observe.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 34