Preceptor Orientation
Program
Developed by the
Kirksville College of
Osteopathic Medicine
for
health professions preceptors
and staff members
THANK YOU for your interest
in our preceptor training
program!
KCOM
appreciates all
the contributions
preceptors make
to the education
of tomorrow’s
practitioners.
Module One
This is the first module in a 3-part
preceptor orientation program
which provides information to help
you, your staff, and the student:
– Get off to a good start,
– Effectively manage common teaching
and learning tasks, and
– Collaborate to improve the feedback
and evaluation process.
FYI
• With the program file saved to your computer
and in Power Point “slide show” view, slides
7-18 may advance on their own.
• Red print on a slide means there’s something
for you to think about or do.
• To download forms shown in this program,
– go to the Preceptor Orientation Module page,
right click your mouse, and choose “save target
as.”
– Windows will then ask you to choose a folder to
save the file in (remember where you put it!)
– You will then be able to store the forms and print
them as MS Word files.
The deep breath before
you jump into the water . . . .
• Whether it’s formally written or has
simply been accumulated through
living, each of us has a personal
“philosophy of teaching” that guides
our interactions with students.
• Examination of that internal guidance
system can help us significantly
enhance our efficiency and
effectiveness as teachers.
On the following 12 slides:
are some “trigger phrases” to
stimulate and guide your reflections
in preparation for this first module of
the preceptor orientation program.
Please take a moment to view these
phrases and reflect on your
experiences and ideas
about precepting. (The slides
are programmed to show for
6 seconds each.)
As a student,
my worst experience
with a preceptor was
when . . . .
The best
preceptor
I ever had . . . .
If a colleague asked
how to get ready for
his or her first student,
I would tell them . . . .
The worst student
I ever had . . . .
Warming up for the race:
• Your reflections on the preceding
slides should have helped focus
your thoughts on the teachinglearning interaction. One further
preparatory concept is:
• How do you make
what
you know
more
available
to you
(and your
students)?
The Reflective
Practitioner
• Physicians constantly reflect-in-action, but
seldom reflect on and articulate their
reflection-in-action.
• Until practitioners learn to deconstruct
and articulate their intuitive actions,
students must guess at much of what
appears to be the art of medicine.
• As practitioners become more fluent
about their intuitive skills, they can teach
and mentor students in a more deliberate,
effective, and efficient manner.
Reflective practice:
• Is a complex and deliberative process of
thinking about and interpreting experience
(negative or positive), in order to learn
from it.
• Is commonly used by professionals as they
meet new and different situations
and challenges.
• Results in a changed perceptual
perspective.
• Can enhance practice standards
by avoiding situations that were
poorly managed in the past.
Keys to reflective
practice
• Nurture mindfulness (attending to the
ordinary, the obvious, and the present).
(Be aware of barriers to mindfulness: fatigue, dogmatism,
focus on doing (not being), unexamined negative emotions,
failure of imagination, and literal-mindedness.)
• Use reflection or metaprocessing
(thinking about thinking or feeling) in a
nonjudgmental way to become
increasingly aware of the tacit
knowledge and skills you use daily (and
the biases you hold).
• Some questions to guide meta-processing:
– What skills and knowledge did I use in this
interaction? How can I describe them clearly?
– Did I hear all the patient had to say?
– Is there a relationship between what I did and how
the patient responded? If so, what?
– What are my blind spots or biases about this
patient? This family? This diagnosis?
• Recognize the goals and outcomes of
mindfulness and reflection:
– goals -- clarity and learning from the tasks at hand
– outcomes -- enhanced knowledge of processes
used, and ability to communicate that knowledge.
Preceptor Orientation
Program Overview
Master Plan for
student training
Orientation
to site
(by staff)
Initial
conference with
preceptor
The
first
day(s)
Teaching
Methods
Adult
Learning
Theory
Facilitating
the
Learning
Process
Feedback
and
Evaluation
Time
and Work
Savers
Getting
Started
Questions
Demonstrations
Contributors to
Evaluation:
Stages of the
Evaluation Process:
Sources of Information
for Evaluation:
To help focus, place yourself
in the following situation:
– You are serving as a preceptor for a
3rd year student who is completing a
4-week primary care rotation. The
student approaches you in the middle
of the second week of the rotation to
make an appointment for an evaluation
conference at the end of the clerkship.
– Here in MODULE ONE of this program,
we will look at things you, your staff,
and the student could have already
done to prepare to meet the student’s
request.
Introduction to section
content
• In this section of the module, we
will look at ways to get started in a
manner that will help you and the
student have the most positive and
productive experience possible.
• These suggestions will also help
you avoid or successfully manage
problems that occasionally arise in
a training situation.
Getting Started
School
Goals and
Objectives
Student
Goals and
Objectives
Practice Site
Goals and
Objectives
Resources
Expectations
Ground Rules
Master Plan for
Student Training
Initial
conference with
preceptor
Orientation
to site
(by staff)
THE
FIRST
DAY(S)
Ready! Set! GO!!!
• Ready: Clarifying roles and
responsibilities
– School roles and responsibilities
– Preceptor roles and responsibilities
– Student roles and responsibilities
• Set: Establishing rotation objectives
– School objectives
– Preceptor site objectives
– Student objectives
• GO: Planning and coordinating the
student’s first day in your practice
READY:
Clarifying Roles and
Responsibilities
–School Role and Responsibilities
–Preceptor Role and Responsibilities
–Student Role and Responsibilities
School Role and
Responsibilities
• Role: Education program designer
• Provide students with stageappropriate basic and clinical science
education and training
• Provide preceptors with course
objectives, student profiles,
evaluation guidelines and materials
• Provide formal training opportunities
to interested preceptors
• Provide Continuing Medical Education
(CME) credit for preceptors.
Preceptor Role and
Responsibilities
• Role: Teacher/Mentor/Role Model
• As appropriate for their educational
stage, help students begin to integrate
theory and basic skills
• Provide increasingly independent skills
practice opportunities as the student
demonstrates readiness and competence
• Encourage the student to work with and
learn from others including: other health
care providers, office support staff,
patients, and community agencies
• Give feedback and evaluate student on
the above skills.
Student Role and
Responsibilities
• Role: Student practitioner
• Perform clinical skills under supervision
with increasing competency and
individual responsibility
• Demonstrate professional behaviors
including: motivation, integrity and
accurate self-assessment
• Utilize available resources for preceptorand self-directed learning, i.e. staff,
electronic tools, computer, books, and
journals
• Participate fully and enthusiastically in
office, hospital, and community activities
SET:
Establishing Rotation
Objectives
•School objectives
•Preceptor site objectives
•Student objectives
School Goals and
Objectives
• KCOM learning objectives encompass the
knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for
successful performance as an entry-level
intern or first year resident. (Print copies are
available upon request.)
• Select the school objectives which you and
your staff believe you can most appropriately
and effectively teach during the student’s
rotation. Summarize them in PART A of the
Master Plan for Student Training Form. (See
form and sample on slides 36 and 37. Forms may be
downloaded from Preceptor Orientation Module
Page.)
Preceptor Site Goals
and Objectives
• Every office has special staff or equipment
resources, unusual patient populations, or
practice procedures that the student
would benefit from learning about.
• Work with your staff to decide which
resources or unique practice features
you’d particularly like to highlight with
students.
• Summarize the 3 or 4 most important on
the PART B of the Master Plan for Student
Training Form. (See form on slide 36)
• Make copies of this form (like slide 37) and
keep on file for future students.
Student Learning
Objectives
KCOM Student Information Forms
– Biographical data will come from the
school in a variety of forms – a
biographical data form, skills selfassessment, or resume/curriculum vita.
(Forms can be downloaded from the Preceptor
Orientation Module page for gathering
biographical and professional histories.)
– Most forms ask the student what he/she
hopes to accomplish on the rotation.
(See sample questions, sample student
responses, and sample 2nd year student
skills self-assessment next 3 pages)
Ambulatory Care Student SelfAssessment (Key items from questionnaire):
•
Students can respond to the
•
questions below prior to
meeting with the preceptor.
This information will be
•
helpful through the initial goalsetting meetings.
•
List the clinical rotations you
•
•
•
have taken that have included
an outpatient service.
What do you specifically hope
to accomplish by the end of
this rotation?
In addition to the basic
curriculum, what types of
patients would you like to see
or what areas of medicine
would you like to emphasize?
•
What interviewing or physical
examination skills would like
to develop or improve?
What educational resources
do you use most often to
answer clinical questions?
Describe your ideal format for
supervision and teaching
during this rotation.
What are your long-term
goals?
What other information
should I/we know about you?
Adapted from the work of Lesky, L.G. and Hershman,
W.Y. “Practical Approaches to Major Educational
Challenge” Archives of Internal Medicine: 1995:897904
Ambulatory Care Student SelfAssessment (Sample student responses):
•
List the clinical rotations
you have taken that have
included an outpatient
service.
I have observed approximately
20 surgeries including
orthopedics and general
surgery. I have also shadowed
medical and radiation
oncologists, a thoracic surgeon,
a general surgeon and a
pediatricion.
I volunteered for 3 months in a
pediatric war in which I assisted
doctors, nurses and patients.
•
What do you specifically
hope to accomplish by the
end of this rotation?
By the completion of the
preceptorship, I hope to be
competent in basic history
taking and physical exam
skills and have a quality
introduction to some more
advanced practice techniques.
I am interested in a wellbalanced introduction to
everyday clinical medicine and
I wish to get plenty of handson experience.
Just before the student
arrives . . . .
• Prior to the student’s arrival,
review the Master Plan for Student
Training Form with your summary
of achievable school objectives
and site-specific objectives.
• Review the student’s biographical
data, self-assessments, and
written goals (and/or determine
what information forms you want
the student to complete when
he/she arrives).
GO:
The student’s first day
in your practice
• Orientation activities by staff
• Initial conference with
preceptor on their first day in
the office
Student Orientation
• Discuss with your staff the
Ground Rules and Expectations
Form (slide 45). (Download from
Preceptor Orientation Module page.)
• Add, delete, adapt, and edit
items as needed.
• Determine which items should
be handled by whom.
Initial preceptor-student
conference
• VERY early in the rotation, discuss with
the student and agree upon specific
“student objectives for this rotation.”
• Enter those into PART C of the Master
Training Form.
• Display the completed Master Training
Form (see sample, slide 47) in a location
where you, the student, and the staff
can refer to them easily and check off
objectives as they are completed. (This
will be a very helpful reference when it’s time for
mid-rotation and final feedback and evaluation.)
Many thanks and much
recognition to:
•
Terri Spear, Michelle Mollick, and Lori Schuerman who
conceived, articulated, and pilot-tested KCOM’s sitebased training program;
•
KCOM administrators, Dixie Rawlins, D.O., Mike
Kuchera, D.O., Barry Robbins, D.O., who have strongly
supported the idea of training resources for
community-based preceptors.
•
Linda Heun, Ph.D., Julie Lochbaum, Ph.D., and Jeanne
Kangas, Steve McKernan, D.O., Nancy Miller, and
Michelle Mollick, for serving as original audiences
before we took the revised materials “on the road.”
•
Phyllis Blondefield,Ph.D.; David Patterson; Julia
McNabb, D.O.; and Stephen Laird, D.O. for assistance
with development and review of these materials.
References:
• Epstein, R. M., (1999) “Mindful Practice.” JAMA, Vol. 282,
No. 9, pp. 833-839.
• Lesky, L.G. and Hershman, W.Y. “Practical Approaches to
Major Educational Challenge” Archives of Internal
Medicine: 95:897-904.
• Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, Preceptor
Education Project Instructors’ Manual. Kansas City,
Missouri.
• Schön, Donald, The Reflective Practitioner: How
Professionals Think in Action.
Development of this module
was supported by KCOM’s
Faculty Development in
Family Medicine grant from
DHHS, HRSA, Bureau of
Health Professions, Grant
Number 5D45HP50086-06.