Faculty Information
The UW medical school curriculum has revamped clinical training. Faculty in the new Primary Care Practicum will be involved in training medical students in primary care practices in Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics.
How will the PRIMARY CARE PRACTICUM work?
1. Student supervision
How much time will be expected of you?
In addition to time in clinic seeing your patients, we estimate you may spend about 30 minutes per student clinic participating in this Primary Care Practicum.
How can we reward you for this effort?
How will the PRIMARY CARE PRACTICUM work?
- Students will be assigned to your clinic either every other week for a full day from January to December, not including the summer break, about 15 sessions over 12 months.
- Your teaching will focus on what you are seeing in your clinic, but we will keep you up-to-date on the new curriculum via approximately two brief emails per month.
- Preceptors are NOT expected to deliver the content of the introduction to clinical medicine course. This will be done at the School of Medicine.
1. Student supervision
- Guide patient selection at the start of each clinic.
- Provide supervision for 2-3 patients each clinic, to help your student achieve learning goals.
- While we expect students may observe you in the initial clinic session, this is not an observation or shadowing experience. Students are expected to make first contact with patients once they have initial training, with responsibility increasing as their skills increase (always with your oversight).
- Read bi-monthly emails updating faculty on students' current curriculum and areas of focus.
- The student’s college mentor will oversee any assignments required other than patient care.
- Provide student with ongoing feedback about his/her performance at the end of each clinic.
- Give written feedback at least 3 times during the year.
- Participate in short faculty development opportunities either in person or online, about 1-2 times per year.
- Provide feedback and suggestions for improving the overall experience for students and faculty.
How much time will be expected of you?
In addition to time in clinic seeing your patients, we estimate you may spend about 30 minutes per student clinic participating in this Primary Care Practicum.
How can we reward you for this effort?
- A certificate for your office that you are a UW School of Medicine teach UW School of Medicine medical students in your office.
- All participating faculty should apply for a UW clinical faculty appointment in your specific department. Clinical faculty benefits include:
- Online access to all UW Health Sciences Library resources
- On-campus benefits, including campus gym membership and discounted athletic tickets.
- Discounts at Apple Stores and at UW Book Stores (approximately 10%)
- Free downloads of Microsoft tools including Word, Excel, Power Point, Lync, Outlook, on up to five personal devices.
- Participation in this experience will be a major factor in clinical faculty promotion in Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, and Family Medicine.
- Participating faculty will receive CME credit for teaching students, both for the hours spent with the student.
- We are working on more ways to show our appreciation. We will work with your clinic to recognize your contribution to training tomorrow’s physicians.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Are there any other days that we can take a student?
Most sites have PCP on a specific day due to other curricular requirements. In Seattle, PCP is on Wednesdays
2. Can more than one physician be involved with each student?
Yes. We know that none of you will be in clinic every week for the time the student is with you. We hope the student will work, in general, with no more than 2-3 faculty. We hope you and your clinic staff will make every effort possible for students to see patients in follow up. We certainly understand vacations, sabbaticals, and leaves of absence, and the accommodations that will have to take place. When your partners have great physical exam findings, a classic heart murmur, or a dermatologic finding, we hope that these will be shared with students.
3. What if we have concerns with our students?
We are committed to helping you as soon as we know there is a concern. While our first aim will be to improve any concerning situation, we are prepared to make changes in assignments where needed. Please contact [email protected] with any concerns.
4. Will these students have any kind of training before they come to my office?
Yes. During a two-week Immersion period before classes start, students will learn some of the basic skills. All students are required to take training in HIPAA, universal precautions, get immunizations, and train in BLS before starting medical school. However, these students will not be able to operate independently for the first few months. They will know the components of the history, physical, and purpose of the patient encounter; some may have advanced skills if they were in the health professions prior to medical school. For the first few visits, we anticipate the focus will be on how to integrate the student, utilize time with the MA, nursing triage, front office, lab, etc. As the students work with their UWSOM College mentors every other week and participate in clinical skills training, we expect they will quickly get up to speed on working in the outpatient setting. The students love gaining experience, and the ability to evaluate, present, and help manage outpatients.
5. Why should I do this?
“It is always stimulating to have young, enthusiastic, budding professionals come and spend time. They encourage us to keep current and to always self-evaluate and not become complacent. Having these students lets our patients know that we are engaged in medical education and…keeping up with advances over time.”
Most sites have PCP on a specific day due to other curricular requirements. In Seattle, PCP is on Wednesdays
2. Can more than one physician be involved with each student?
Yes. We know that none of you will be in clinic every week for the time the student is with you. We hope the student will work, in general, with no more than 2-3 faculty. We hope you and your clinic staff will make every effort possible for students to see patients in follow up. We certainly understand vacations, sabbaticals, and leaves of absence, and the accommodations that will have to take place. When your partners have great physical exam findings, a classic heart murmur, or a dermatologic finding, we hope that these will be shared with students.
3. What if we have concerns with our students?
We are committed to helping you as soon as we know there is a concern. While our first aim will be to improve any concerning situation, we are prepared to make changes in assignments where needed. Please contact [email protected] with any concerns.
4. Will these students have any kind of training before they come to my office?
Yes. During a two-week Immersion period before classes start, students will learn some of the basic skills. All students are required to take training in HIPAA, universal precautions, get immunizations, and train in BLS before starting medical school. However, these students will not be able to operate independently for the first few months. They will know the components of the history, physical, and purpose of the patient encounter; some may have advanced skills if they were in the health professions prior to medical school. For the first few visits, we anticipate the focus will be on how to integrate the student, utilize time with the MA, nursing triage, front office, lab, etc. As the students work with their UWSOM College mentors every other week and participate in clinical skills training, we expect they will quickly get up to speed on working in the outpatient setting. The students love gaining experience, and the ability to evaluate, present, and help manage outpatients.
5. Why should I do this?
- Primary care is needed now more than ever. We hope this course will show students the benefits of continuity of care and comprehensive care, and also provide them with better training for a career which will most likely be spent, to an increasing degree, in the outpatient setting.
- Our experience with longitudinal integrated clerkships has shown that students and faculty find these experiences very rewarding. Over 12 months, you get to know your student and know what to expect of him/her. Students see more patients in this type of setting, and generally get a higher level of responsibility than students who don’t have a continuity experience.
- Students find the PCP very rewarding, too! The first PCP cohort identified their time in community clinics as one of the best parts of medical school.
- Be a part of this new and innovative medical school curriculum that brings students to significant clinical care in the ambulatory setting from the first weeks of medical school. Please contact us for any questions or to sign up: [email protected]
“It is always stimulating to have young, enthusiastic, budding professionals come and spend time. They encourage us to keep current and to always self-evaluate and not become complacent. Having these students lets our patients know that we are engaged in medical education and…keeping up with advances over time.”