Preceptor Applications

Preceptors

Preceptors offer guidance, mentorship and dedication to medical students and to medical education.

We appreciate, in advance, your partnership and the shared knowledge and skills that will help shape the future generation of doctors. The impact you will make is immeasurable. By participating in our preceptor program, your physicians and health system will enjoy many benefits. Additionally, studies show that most physicians practice within 100 miles of where they received medical training. Through this experience, our medical students will develop connections with your facility and team members, and this time should be considered a long-term investment in your physician base.

Preceptors are known to be:

• Are more energized in their daily work and practice
• Kept up to date in best practices and innovative care
• Invested in and engaged with the next generation of physicians
• More strongly tied to the profession
• Proud they are contributing to strengthen their community
• Appreciative of the ease of obtaining Continuing Medical Education credits
• More connected to their own training and reflective on their path in medicine
• Will find value in the access to the suite of Meritus medical library resources

Patients benefit from this experience as well:

• Enjoy receiving more time with the care team at every visit
• Are proud to be part of the learning experience for future physicians
• Trust their physicians more knowing they are also teaching and staying up to date
• Hope to see these medical students graduate and stay in the area to practice
• Recognize a greater diversity in their care team

As a health system, your teams will:

• Find that medical students bring energy, joy, and inquisitiveness
• Have a greater appreciation for the work involved in medical education
• Love having new faces and team members
• Believe this will benefit recruitment
• Frequently learn new things
• Appreciate the extra hands to help with patient care
• Have opportunity to expand employee's supervision and leadership skills
• Opportunity for employees to obtain continuing education credits
• Exposes employees to new knowledge and practice
• May result in the capacity to alter or expand services for patients/clients
• Elevates the hospital to a teaching institution
• Exposes clinicians to new knowledge and clinical ideas
• Provides the foundation for students to become future clinical educators
• Facilitates recruitment
• CME for teaching hours
• Allows for professional growth, often with appointment to professional delegation

Preceptor Roles and Responsibilities

Qualities of an Effective Preceptor

• Preceptors are seasoned professionals that have extensive clinical knowledge and practiced skills
• Preceptors are the observable role models for a student
• Guide the student in the practical application of clinical knowledge and the use of clinical reasoning
• Assess a student's strengths and weaknesses based on direct observation of the learner in the clinical role
• Evaluate important aspects of a student's ability to integrate advanced practice knowledge, skills, and attitudes
• Empower students by providing constructive feedback and strives to maximize the learning process by fostering strengths and working to empower identified areas of growth
• Educators on the front line in the clinical practice arena
• Create the next generation of highly qualified health care professionals

Responsibilities of the Preceptor

• Review the clinical course objectives and personal student objectives with the student
• Discuss your schedule and expectations with the student
• Overall maintain supervision of the student's clinical experience. Students are able to work with a variety of healthcare providers (DO, MD, NP, CNS, LCSW, PA, and others) as you are overseeing these members of the healthcare team
• Provide the student with opportunities to perform history and mental/physical assessments, diagnose, conduct procedures, present patient and develop plans of care
• Provide daily and timely informal feedback
• Provide formalized feedback sessions as needed based upon student performance
• Report any issues to the clinical faculty, as soon as possible
• Complete student evaluations - review progress at the halfway mark with the student and ways they can improve, evaluate the student at the end of the rotation
• Sign off on any procedure logs that students did under your supervision

Qualities of an Effective Preceptor

• Review what the student is interested in learning
• Encourage students to learn outside of the day, look up interesting cases or medicine that they should know
• Let the students know why you chose your profession and what things you enjoy about your day
• Provide feedback
• Allow students to see your patient and report to you their history or physical
• Give feedback and guidance
• Have clear expectations
• Open communication with the students