Additional Tips for Preceptors
These are some practical tips to help you navigate your work day and flow with your medical student. If any of you have additional tips or suggestion, please feel free to email me, kluba@arizona.edu.
1) Students start by shadowing you but need to be hands-on as soon as they have earned your confidence and trust.
2) Ask the student to present the history to you in front of the patient; you can scribe and the patient can verify the information is correct.
3) Ask your student to repeat or perform one part of the exam (vs the entire exam); point out any abnormal exam findings.
4) Once your student has earned your trust, you can "divide and conquer." You could see one patient, while the student performs a history and focused exam on another (usually the simpler of the two patients). You can return together to verify the information and wrap up.
5) Give your student a time limit (about ten minutes).
6) Depending on your practice/patients, students could be tasked with medication reconciliation, probing patients about goal setting (motivational interviewing) and/or reviewing patient education.
8) If your student is not able to use your EMR, have them use their laptop for the history (without any patient identifying information). This allows them to practice typing while talking with patients.
9) Foster curiosity; ask your students what they think and why?
10) Although students have not learned every system when they start with you, you can encourage them to practice critical thinking by helping you synthesize assessments and plans. *At the conclusion of CCE (MS-2 Fall), students will present a case they worked on during CCE and present the case to classmates.
11) CCE is an "experience." The journey will be different for every student-preceptor pair. You are a role model and mentor. Students will see you interact with patients you’ve known a long time, deal with challenging situations, witness you counsel or simply listen to patients. The value of this course is having the students be a part of your day-to-day and become more comfortable around patients and staff. Our CCE preceptors have a big impact on students.