Faculty Development of Pediatric Practitioners: Complexities in Teaching Clinical Precepting

Abstract

Community physicians should be ideal role model preceptors for residents to learn office-based primary care. These physicians are the specialists at what they do, just as the organ-based subspecialists are the experts in their field. The faculty development course we developed considered the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for clinical preceptors and attempted to address potential difficulties, such as reservations practitioners might have about accepting the role. It should be axiomatic that once the objectives are defined and are recognized to involve skills and attitudes as well as knowledge, lectures alone (although time-efficient) will not suffice: they are unlikely to change behavior. The key is practice over time, with supervision and reinforcement by respected "experts" and peers. Faculty development for clinical precepting is complex, because clinical precepting, particularly in pediatrics, is complex. Attention to relationships and feelings (anxiety, discomfort, stress) should be built in, along with efforts to improve knowledge and skills.