The Continuity Principle: Longitudinal Relationships with Faculty and Teams
“I would probably tell someone who's new to LIC that the students involved in LIC really want to be involved in patient care, and giving them assignments to follow up with consultants, help with patients, make sure they're getting hooked in with their subspecialty appointments, things like that, are things that they really enjoy and things that make them feel like they're an important part of the medical team.”
— Student
“I would say expectations are huge. I think that’s one thing that worked really well was setting expectations for both of us at the beginning of the year in a clinic and then revisiting those…and saying what’s working well in clinic, what’s really not working well in clinic. So like revisiting those and updating them as needed.”
— Student
Building a relationship with your LIC student is critical to their growth and success. It is also crucial for students to develop relationships with the entire care team. Preceptors can help facilitate these relationships with a few quick and easy interventions described in this section which empower students to increase their autonomy and make meaningful contributions in patient care.
Advocating for and empowering students:
Set expectations for the team. Clearly introduce the student and their role. Let the team know how often and for how many months the student will be in clinic.
Give clear expectations to the students early in the year. Provide orientation handout and describe their role in clinic (seeing patients, writing notes, etc.)
Give students autonomy. Allow them to see patients independently, formulate their own plan, etc.
Feel part of the team:
Huddle with student and MA at the start of the session to create a tentative plan.
Tell the MA, “This is the student’s patient.” Promote direct communication between the MA and student.
Students can learn from interprofessional team members.
Schedule student with other members of the team including pharmD, behavioral health, RN, social work, addictions counselors, etc. This will emphasize interprofessional teamwork and can be a good plan for when you are out of the office.
Briefly introduce student directly to patient and explain their role in the LIC.
Talk the students up! (e.g., put up a one-page bio with student photo so staff/patients can learn about the student).
Empower students to make follow-up phone calls to patients.
They can provide test results, check-in with patients, provide extra support between visits, etc.
Students can play a key role here as providers often do not have time.
Model how to document the phone call in the EHR and the best way to keep the provider in the loop (e.g., email, route the Encounter in Epic, etc).
Collaborative and individual expectations:
At the beginning of the year (even before clinic starts), consider meeting with student in a low stakes environment to learn about their interests and share about yourself.
Tell students about your teaching style and expectations at the beginning. Revisit expectations and goals periodically through the year in a structured manner.
Provide objective tasks to focus on at different stages of the year.
Consistently debrief sessions to highlight key teaching points and lessons learned.
Check-in with student outside of busy clinical setting at timed intervals (perhaps monthly) to identify goals and reflect on progress.
See Setting Learning Goals and Providing Effective Feedback.
