Preceptor Development Program (PDP)

Precepting is supposed to be about teaching, but sometimes it is difficult to find the time or energy to do much formal teaching. Recognize that there is a tremendous amount of experiential learning that occurs in your office. At the same time, you want to optimize the formal teaching that you do. How can you do this?

• Use techniques designed for the outpatient setting such as the One Minute Preceptor.
• Usually I allow the student to present briefly in the hallway or, if it is really busy, I just go on into a room and have them observe my interaction with the patient they just saw. We then discuss it at the end of the day.
• Jot notes on the border of your patient care schedule or on a note card in your pocket. When you do have an extra moment, then you can remember teaching points or feedback you need to share with the learner. Likewise, you can encourage the learner to keep a notebook to record questions and issues to discuss at later times.
• Spending a few minutes at the end of the day or half-day reviewing the list of patients seen gives you an opportunity to review or solidify teaching points made earlier in the day.
• Discussing the morning cases over a bag lunch or at the local Burger joint can serve the dual purpose of nourishing the mind and insuring that you both get your lunch. Beware of confidentiality issues if you lunch in public places.
• Use travel time to and from hospital rounds for teaching and feedback.
• Many preceptors have the learner review a topic and present it the following morning. Set a specific time limit (5 minutes) and format for the presentation. Be sure that you give the learner a chance to present what he or she has reviewed. By having the student do the research, you save yourself some time and also foster more active participation for the learner.
• For your five or ten most common teaching topics, collect readings or dictate your talk and keep these materials in a folder that your learner can readily access.
• Reflect on your teaching. Ask yourself and your learner if the teaching approaches you have used were effective. If not, then why? What, if anything, might you do differently next time. Doing this exercise regularly throughout the rotation (for a few minutes every few days) will help reinforce your good teaching habits and give you time to try alternatives to less successful strategies.

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