Teaching competencies for community preceptors

Darin R Brink, Deb Simpson, Byron Crouse, Jeffrey Morzinski, Douglas Bower, Ruth Westra

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although community physicians provide one-fourth of the outpatient training received in medical school, usually there is no formal training of the preceptor. Currently there is no agreed-upon list of teaching competencies for community physician-preceptors. Using a modified Delphi process, the authors aimed to identify core teaching competencies for community preceptors for use in training and evaluation. METHODS: A medical educator and three faculty members with expertise in faculty development created a list of teaching competencies organized in five domains. These competencies were finalized through a multiround modified Delphi technique with key stakeholder groups including (1) nonphysician medical educators, (2) academic physicians involved in faculty development, (3) community physicians who regularly precept medical students, (4) family medicine residents, (5) third-year medical students in a 9-month-long longitudinal clerkship. Proposed competencies were retained if 70% of the participants ranked it as “very or extremely important.” RESULTS: In the first round, 24 competencies were evaluated by 40 physician preceptors participating in a rural faculty development conference. These were refined, and four additional competencies were added by the cohort. Subsequent rounds utilized a survey approach with broader audiences resulting in a final list of 21 competencies in five domains. CONCLUSIONS: Five competency domains with 21 teaching competencies can now be used to guide community preceptors’ training and evaluation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)359-363
Number of pages5
JournalFamily medicine
Volume50
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. All rights reserved.

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