Teaching Tip: Effective One-on-One Teaching
by Ellen Whiting, Faculty Development Coordinator, Department of Family Medicine

How are your skills as a preceptor? How do learners and peers rate your precepting skills? Consider the advice from experienced preceptors who follow "The One Minute Preceptor."

First, complete the following statements:

1. When I precept a student in the office, my main objective is to: (check all that apply.)

assess and treat the patient

determine the student’s knowledge and reasoning skills

teach the student a critical point about each case

2. After the student presents a case, the FIRST thing I do is:

tell the student what I think is going on with the patient and what I will do.

ask the student what s/he thinks is going on and what s/he wants to do next.

 

Enhance Your Teaching Effectiveness

If your objectives include diagnosing both the learner and the patient, you will want to adopt the following Clinical Teaching Microskills." [1] After the student presents a case to you, resist the temptation to ask the student questions in order answer your questions about the patient.  Find out what the student’s thoughts/knowledge about the case.

  • Ask questions in order to:

1. Get a commitment What do you think is going on with this patient?
2. Probe for evidence

What led you to that conclusion?

  • Next, reinforce what the student did well and describe what they did wrong.

3. Give positive feedback When you did X, the patient visibly relaxed.
4. Correct errors  Here's what I observed:______. Were you aware of this? The result of this action is_______.

Provide information that the student can apply to future patient care encounters.

5. Teach a general rule When patients present with _______, it is important to ask about _________, because...

Do I have to ask every question every time I precept a student?

No, if you have a student in your office for more than one day, choose only 1 or 2 specific microskills for each student-patient encounter.

Won't asking these questions require MORE teaching time?

This process simply shifts the time you would spend inquiring about the case to determining student reasoning. You learn about the case as you do so.

[1] Neher JO, Gordon KC, Meyer B, Stevens N. (1992). A five-step "microskills" model of clinical teaching. Journal of the American Board of Family Practice. Vol. 5(4): 420-1.