Web Resources on Clinical Teaching and Education

Clinical Teaching and Preceptoring: General Concepts. Describes the nature of medical competence and judgement and how best to organize education to develop these abilities. Reviews the roles of clinical teachers and the characteristics of effective clinical teaching. Discusses the nature of the clinical environment and recommends ways to help maintain productive and positive learning experiences in the clinical setting. 18 links

Tips and Tutorials for the Clinical Teacher/Preceptor. Describes the preceptor relationship and how to create a positive learning environment. Provides access to dozens of learning modules on topics such as: Teaching in the Busy Practice, Setting Expectations, Teaching and Learning Styles, Difficult Learning Situations; Bedside Teaching, the One Minute Preceptor; Teaching EBM; Teaching Cost Awareness; and Role Modeling. Includes a "Top 10 List" of clinical teaching do's and don'ts and a teaching skills self-assessment. 24 links

Structured Medline Searches on Preceptorships/Precepting. Run dynamic searches of the Medline database using the NLM PubMed interface on Preceptorships & Precepting in Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy and Alied Health, including evaluation studies and review articles. 7 links

Clinical Teaching Role and Teaching/Learning Styles. Provides self-assessment inventories to measure your comfort with clinical teaching and your preferred teaching style. Differentiates among the tasks and responsibilities of clinical preceptor, advisor, mentor, and role model. Reviews several teaching style categories, how they can promote or deter various types of learning, and why one may need to adapt his/her style to accommodate the particular situation. 7 links

Teaching at the Bedside. Reviews the history of bedside teaching and its advantages, benefits, barriers and challenges. Addresses specific bedside teaching issues, including the learning climate for teacher, learners and patients. Describes practical strategies to enhance bedside teaching, including tips on setting the ground rules, making introductions, and guiding the presentation and discussion. Last, describes a simple method for teaching psychomotor skills. 9 links

Giving Effective Feedback. Reviews the defining characteristics of feedback, contrasts feedback with evaluation, identifies barriers to providing good feedback, outlines an approach to giving effective feedback, and explores how to incorporate feedback into one's busy schedule. Describes a simple, flexible tool that allows preceptors to record brief, focused observations - essential for giving detailed, accurate feedback. 6 links

Evaluating Clinical Performance. Link to the Center's Student Evaluation Section to access dozens of links on clinical evaluation organized into three major categories: Overviews of Clinical Evaluation; Evaluating Clinical Performance and Competence; and Representative Clinical Assessment Tools and Methods. Includes dynamic searches of the Medline database on clinical competency evaluation and the Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE). 52 links

Planning Community Preceptorships: Orientation and Goal Setting. Recommends that the expectations of all participants in community-based preceptorships should be explicit, shared, and agreed on. Identifies key steps for integrating learners into a busy office practice and provides time-saving hints for each step. Includes practical examples, sample checklists, forms, schedules and timelines. Suggests using learner contracts to outline mutually negotiated expectations, roles, and responsibilities for a given clinical experience, including evaluation methods. 8 links

Avoiding Pitfalls and Addressing Problem Situations. Discusses several common pitfalls and problems occurring in the precepting process and their potential causes. Suggests several strategies for the prevention of problem interactions. Emphasizes the importance of early detection of student learning problems. Describes various cognitive, affective, valuative, environmental and medical "diagnoses" of learning difficulties and outlines various approaches to intervention. 8 links

Evidence-Based Clinical Teaching. Describes the requirements for the practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM), effective teaching of EBM, barriers to teaching and practicing EBM, and the impact of teaching and learning EBM. Provides practical guidance on developing learning goals and objectives for students, and developing strategies to help students learn about EBM. 4 links

Team and Interdisciplinary Teaching. Traces the development of interdisciplinary health care teams in the US. Defines an interdisciplinary team and identifies the competencies that facilitate team functioning. Recommends ways to train professionals to work effectively in health care teams, and how to overcome barriers to interdisciplinary practice. Also outlines strategies for teaching an interdisciplinary course and discusses how to address territoriality. 24 links

Clinical Education Associations and Societies. Provides links to a variety of general and specialized associations, councils and societies involved in undergraduate and graduate clinical education, primarily in medicine. 15 links