Abstract
In 2012, the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa conducted a study to identify stakeholder’s perspectives of site visits and how they can be improved to support preceptors and provide the best learning experience for medical students and residents. Two data sources were utilized to address the research questions: interviews with stakeholders (both focus group and individual interviews) and online surveys with preceptors. The findings assert that establishing a process for site visits to maximize preceptor support and the quality of medical student and resident supervision is a complex process. Perceptions of quality site visits for all stakeholders were strongly linked to: 1) having clear expectations; 2) making site visits a priority and supplying the necessary support and resources; 3) supporting preceptors to be better teachers; 4) the quality and timeliness of preceptor feedback from residents and medical students; 5) involving the medical student and resident in the site visit process; and 6) an integration and collaboration among curriculum, faculty development and evaluation resources. As researchers continue to build site visit recipes based on theory and reflection of practical experiences, the resulting insights will enable all stakeholders in family medicine programs to make more informed decisions to positively impact the quality of the site visit experience, support preceptors in being better teachers and improve the quality of the supervision of residents and medical students. This study takes one step toward building a broad base of theoretical knowledge informed by practical experiences on site visits.
Highlights
As family medicine programs across Canada continue to grow and accept more medical students and residents in response to a shortage of family physicians, finding sufficient medical educators to provide effective learning experiences has become an ongoing challenge
Stakeholders were identified by the three faculty representatives and included the preceptors in urban community and rural practices, the two co-directors of site visits, the current interim chair who formerly was responsible for site visits in the Department of Family Medicine (DFM) undergraduate program, and the site coordinator who is an administrator who supports the organization of the site visits
The findings gleaned results that are in line with existing literature on the site visit process
Summary
As family medicine programs across Canada continue to grow and accept more medical students and residents in response to a shortage of family physicians, finding sufficient medical educators to provide effective learning experiences has become an ongoing challenge. Canadian medical schools have been expanding both undergraduate clerkship and postgraduate rotations into rural and community medical offices, clinics and hospital settings. A study by Bianchi, Stobbe and Eva (2008) demonstrated that medical students and residents who learn in rural and community environments are in no way experientially disadvantaged. Community and rural medical clinics and offices typically encounter a wide variety of patients with complex issues and problems and expose learners to a broad range of patients and rich learning experiences. Early exposure to rural community settings during clinical education increases the likelihood that these learners will stay and practice medicine in these underserved areas helping to correct the family physician mal-distribution in rural communities (Bianchi et al.; Curran & Rourke, 2004; Denz-Penhey et al, 2005; Veitch et al, 2006)
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