Supporting Student Autonomy and Growth
“I always felt like that was helpful when [the preceptors say] ‘I'll go see this one, you go see that one’ and then we'll meet up and you know, if we start running behind and the schedule gets too crazy, then be like ‘okay, let's see this one together.’ So we catch back up... [It] just always makes you feel like you are more than just a student and... [makes] you feel like you're a part of the team.”
— Student
“I think for my preceptor [to communicate] with other people.... ‘This is [student’s] patient today... You know, talk with her about whatever,’ so that they knew to come to me with a question instead of waiting for my preceptor. And that really strengthened my sense of ownership too, but also really helped my relationship with those people on the team. They felt like I was a responsible member of the team that they could come to.”
— Student
Students learn the most when they are allowed to see patients on their own and manage them with an appropriate amount of autonomy. You can help support this in the following ways.
Advocating For and Empowering Student Role:
Review with student and MA which patients the student will plan to see and ask MA to communicate with student about those patients.
Intentionally incorporate the student into care team discussions. Model treating the student like a trusted colleague so others will do the same.
Introduce the student to the patient as part of the care team.
Activate the student’s ability to make decisions during a visit by “pre-precepting” before they go see a patient.
What questions will you ask about this chief complaint? What physical exam findings will you look for? Etc.
This can help the student narrow their focus and their differential.
Feel a Part of the Team:
Support students in seeing patients independently and in handling as much of the management as they can.
In surgical specialties, teach student how to find OR room, introduce themselves to the team before the procedure, find gloves and gowns to scrub in, etc.
Students can work with different care members (e.g., PharmD, RN, SW, behavioral health, etc.) either during your clinic sessions or scheduled on a day you will not be in clinic.
This can be a good learning opportunity and help students get to know other team members.
If other team members are coming into the visit directly (addiction counselor, behavioral health, etc.) have the student present the patient directly to the team member.
Continuous Growth in Skills Across all Specialties:
Remember that between your sessions with the student they are working with other preceptors in other specialties and that their learning curve in a particular specialty will be different than a traditional student.
Check-in about what the student has been doing in other specialties so you can use their recent experiences to reinforce learning points.
The LIC model enables students to learn from different preceptors in different specialties for an entire year. Don’t feel pressure to teach students everything about your specialty.
