The five phases of preceptorship. It takes a unique individual to simultaneously care for a patient while educating...

Clinical teaching has been one of the most important but problematic areas of professional education.10 Clinical knowledge rarely corresponds with the theoretical knowledge that students acquire in the classroom and lab setting, contributing to a theory-practice gap for the patient care provider. This gap leads to the difficulty and disillusionment experienced by students during their field internship. To assist students with transitioning to the prehospital environment, paramedic preceptors are a necessity. However, regardlessof theirprehospitalexperience, paramedic preceptors may not have had proper education in the teaching-learning process and may not have been provided a quality preceptor training program. At present, there isno nationally sponsored preceptor program that effectively prepares field internship preceptors as clinical instructors even though accreditation now requires education for all paramedic preceptors. It is my hope that this article may be useful in the, development of quality preceptor work- shops, which will enhance the overall field internship experience to better prepare future paramedics.