1. Recruitment, Motivation and Retention of Volunteer Faculty Members STFM Conference on Medical Student Education February 3, 2012

2. Presenters Kathryn G. Chappelle, M.A. Anita D. Taylor, M.A. Ed.
Associate Family Medicine Clerkship Director
Assistant Professor of Family Medicine
Anita D. Taylor, M.A. Ed.
Assistant Dean for Student Development
Associate Professor of Family Medicine
Frances E. Biagioli, M.D.
Associate Director of Medical Student Education
Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine
Portland, Oregon

3. Agenda Historical Perspective Current Needs for Volunteer Faculty
Preceptor Motivation
Preceptor Recruitment
Preceptor Retention
Discussion

4. 25-Year History of Increasing Volunteer Faculty Involvement
Two electives, three required courses:
Summer Observership (pre-1st year)
Rural Community Clerkship (3rd year)
Ambulatory Care Clerkship (3rd year)
(changed in 1991 to Family Medicine)
Principles of Clinical Medicine (1st & 2nd year)
Rural FM Summer Experience (pre-2nd year)

5. SUMMER OBSERVERSHIP
15-25 students spend 7-10 days with physicians and families
August before medical school
Primarily rural family physicians across state
Begins with Orientation Day in department
Ends with Debriefing BBQ where students share their stories
Pre-YEAR 1

6. RURAL FM EXPERIENCE
15-25 students spend 1-2 weeks with preceptors/families
Summer elective between first & second year
Primarily rural family physicians across state
Scheduled at convenience of preceptor
Students writing essays receive OAFP subsidy
Students share stories at OAFP luncheon to which preceptors are invited
Pre-YEAR 2

7. PRINCIPLES OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
Years 1 and 2 – longitudinal course
½ day every week in preceptorship
1 year with 3 different specialists (10 wks each)
1 year IM or FM (66%) continuity preceptor
Approx 80 FM preceptors a year
YEARS 1 & 2

8. RURAL COMMUNITY CLERKSHIP
Required 5-week rotation in primary care
Began with rural AHEC sites, then expanded
Housing provided for students by school
Approx. 80% of sites are family medicine
Rural Scholars Program = RCHC + Family Medicine + Elective (14 wks at one site)
YEAR 3

9. FAMILY MEDICINE CLERKSHIP
Required 5-week rotation
Primarily community preceptors
Lead vs. shared preceptor models
8 clinic sessions per week (Thursdays off)
Approx 120 students per year
12-18 students per rotation
YEAR 3

10. Recruitment Strategies
Personal contact
-- in person at state Academy meeting
-- telephone (cold calls and “leads”)
Keeping in touch with and reaching out to
Medical school graduates
Residency graduates
Students personally contacting new preceptors they wish to work with

11. Recruitment / Retention Challenges
Preceptors aren’t paid
Ever increasing demands on physicians to see more pts and produce income
Practice managers, staff may resent student presence or see it as unnecessary cost
Some patients may be reluctant to see students
Partners aren’t interested and won’t work w/students
Teaching takes TIME!! (but not as much as some think)

12. Site Visits as Retention Tool: Offering Affiliation & Development
. . but time-intensive
Other options:
Websites, Teaching Physician

13. Preceptor Development: Six Clinical Teaching Time Savers
Establish a teaching environment
Communicate with everyone
Tailor your teaching to the student’s needs
Share teaching responsibilities
Keep observation & teaching encounters brief
Broaden student responsibilities

14. Family Practice Management Article: How to Be an Efficient and Effective Preceptor
Pearls collected at meetings with groups of experienced clinical teacher
Article and accompanying tables easy to share with preceptors
Can be accessed at:

15. Reasons Physicians are Initially Motivated to Teach
To “give-back”
Sounds “interesting”
Partner/practice involved in precepting
Status of faculty appointment

16. Ongoing Rewards of Teaching
Being a teacher “feels good”
Student enthusiasm for medicine is catching
Continuing to learn with students
Office manager, staff like student presence
Patients like student involvement
Relationships with individual students
Up to 75 hrs CME with AAFP

17. Innovative Retention Strategies: Recognition and Rewards
Community newspapers & Dept newsletter
“Meet the Docs” Dinner (practice styles)
Opportunities to present to students (panels, etc.)
Master Teacher Award
Carpenter Award – one per year
OHSU Graduation Award – one per year
Student-Mentor Graduation Dinner

18. Community Newspapers
(news article with photo of visiting student and preceptor caring for patient in hospital bed)
We make sure to work with our university publicity folks so that they can send the names of all students and a the story of what they will be doing with physicians whenever we send them out to small towns around Oregon. Often the small town papers will do feature articles on the physicians so that there whole community knows they are involved in teaching medical students.

19. Department Newsletter
Distributing department newsletters to volunteer faculty is a way

20. “Meet the Docs” Dinner (practice styles)
(Photo of students at round table having dinner and chatting with one of our preceptors)
Each year, we invite 8-10 family medicine preceptors with varying practice styles to come to a dinner held for our FMIG students. We sit each of them at a separate round table, and put a table tent in the middle showing their practice style: “Academic,” “Sports Medicine,” “International,” “Frontier,” “Rural,” “Locum Tenens,” “Multi-specialty practice,” “Kaiser” are examples of these styles. Students are invited to sit at the table of the physicians with a practice style they are interested in. This is a chance for preceptors to meet students and “catch” their enthusiasm. Each preceptor then stands up and tells the full room about how they ended up in their current practice style and how it suits their family life and interests. At times, this is quite inspiring. After everyone talks, students are invited to switch tables and meet another preceptor with a different practice style. The evening is not only helpful in attracting students to family medicine, but in helping invited preceptors feel validated and valued by students and the university.

21. Panels & Presentations: Opportunities to Share Passions with Medical Students
(Photos of 1) preceptor invited to give a noontime lecture and 2) preceptor asked to sit on a panel to talk to students about his community practice and lifestyle)
Another opportunity to demonstrate to preceptors that we value what they do and believe they are excellent role models for our students interested in family medicine.

22. “Master Teacher” Awards & Promotions
Appreciation letters sent annually
Certificates signed by Dept. Chairman
Reminder re AAFP CME credit
Promotion letters sent annually
We keep track of promotions and make sure our volunteer faculty get promoted as soon as they qualify. The Master Teacher awards were developed by our department. We print up certificates for instructors who have met criteria (number of hours, terms taught, etc.) each year and have the chairman sign them. We see them on preceptor’s walls when we make site visits . .

23. Carpenter & OHSU Teaching Awards
(photo of rural preceptor honored by the students at graduation)
The “Carpenter Award” came about through a donation in remembrance of a preceptor. Each year the department awards it to one of our preceptors who has made a significant contribution to medical student education. The institution has students vote for instructors and preceptors each year that they have valued, and family medicine rural physicians often get this honor.

24. Best Practice: Graduation / Mentor Dinner
(photo of student standing up at a dinner to talk about her
time with
The Graduation/Mentor Dinner is an annual dinner for graduating students going into family medicine. It is usually held in the week prior to graduation on a weekend evening. The cost of the event is split by our department and our Oregon Assoc. of Family Physicians. Long in advance, the students are asked to name 1-2 family physicians they would like to honor as their mentors and/or their inspiration for going into the specialty. This is a big honor for preceptors: for some it is the first time a student has formally chosen them and for some this dinner has been an annual event for them for years. At the dinner, students and mentors and spouses are seated at the same round tables. The program for the evening consists of students and mentors both standing up and relating a story or telling each other what has been meaningful to them in their relationship. Some speeches are humorous, some are heartwarming, and the whole room shares in the success of the mentors as inspirational teachers as well as that of the students going into family medicine. Many preceptors have told us how much this evening has meant to them. We award mentors with framed certificates with dates and the name(s) of the student(s) that have chosen them.

25. Photos Taken of All Students with Mentors
(Photo of graduating senior and her husband and baby with her two mentors and their spouses)
As part of the Graduation / Mentor Dinner tradition, every student has a picture taken with the family physician(s) they have chosen as their mentors along with their significant others. After the dinner, both students and mentors are sent copies of the photo as a remembrance.

26. Questions?
Other Strategies?