Four exemplary preceptors' strategies for efficient teaching in managed care settings

To identify time-efficient and educationally effective methods for teaching in ambulatory care and managed care settings, the authors studied four exemplary preceptors who taught family medicine clerks in managed care clinics. They interviewed all four preceptors and observed three of them. All of these preceptors claimed to practice more efficiently with students than without them. Analysis of 33 patients encounters involving students revealed that each of the five students observed spent an average of 12.0 minutes conducting a history and physical examination, 2.2 minutes presenting the case to the preceptor, 7.9 minutes observing the preceptor reviewing and/or repeating the examination with the patient, and 1.8 minutes receiving direct instruction and feedback from the preceptor. The total time per patient encounter was 23.7 minutes, 11.7 minutes of which directly involved the preceptor. The authors then compared these 33 encounters with encounters involving the preceptors alone; these encounters took an average of 10.6 minutes of the preceptors' time. The 1.1-minute difference between the amount of time preceptors spent in encounters involving students and the amount of time they spent in encounters on their own was not statistically significant as measured by t-test (p < .05). However, in calculating this time difference, possible time saved by students' assistance with charting was not accounted for. In interviews the preceptors identified three major instructional strategies for time-efficient teaching; planning and preparing; teaching with patients; and charting, giving feedback, and reflecting. Students described these preceptors as enthusiastic teachers and good role models; however, they also felt that their first two years of education had not prepared them for seeing patients in fast-paced ambulatory care settings. The challenge for medical schools is to better prepare both students and preceptors for learning and teaching in productivity driven ambulatory care and managed care environments.