Structured Preceptorship
The Drexel Medicine® Physician Refresher/Re-Entry Structured Preceptorship Course is offered virtually in real time to physicians wishing to gain relicensure and return to active clinical practice, to enhance their focus or area of interest or to prepare for admission to U.S. graduate medical education training programs.
If you plan to take this course, please note the following:
- The virtual preceptorship is offered in four week blocks (e.g. four weeks, eight weeks, etc.).
- The course starts on the first Monday of every month and is first-come, first-served.
- This is a general medicine preceptorship where candidates may include all specialties (pediatrics, family medicine, internal medicine and its specialties, psychiatry, etc.) all coming together to learn.
Individualizing Physicians' Educational Needs
Participants may outline their individual needs in the written application. The admissions committee reviews this and further explores individual goals during a personal interview. The director customizes each participant's curricula (daily schedules) to suit the individual goals guided by the overall goals of the course. The Physician Refresher/Re-Entry Course makes every effort to identify a preceptor within the participant's area of interest for ongoing teaching, mentorship and feedback. The director maintains ongoing contact with the participant and formally meets regularly for curricular discussions, feedback, to monitor progress in meeting the educational goals, to provide assistance with any potential barriers and to revise the goals or curricula as necessary.
During the physician refresher structured preceptorship, participants will:
- Have the opportunity to care for virtual online patients (DxR) and standardized patients (laypersons trained to be medical educators — in that role, they portray a patient and remain true to standardization factors, giving feedback on learners' performance), where they will receive formative feedback and assessment
- Participate in the doctoring curriculum facilitated by the director (comparable to one taken by internal medicine interns). The doctoring curriculum emphasizes acculturation into current U.S. practices, physician well-being, documentation and coding guidelines, feedback skills, practicing board review questions, quality of care and disclosure of medical errors
- Formally meet with the director for feedback, monitor progress in meeting the educational goals, receive assistance with any potential barriers, and revise the goals or curricula as necessary
- Have opportunities for possible presentations during rounds, with the preceptor and at the end of the preceptorship
- Have access to Drexel's medical library
- Build a portfolio of accomplishments which documents activities completed and performance evaluations by faculty
- Explore career paths
Structured Preceptorship Target Audience
- Physicians who wish to regain licensure and return to active clinical medicine after an extended leave.
- Physicians who wish to enhance their focus or area of interest and need a primary medical update.
- International medical graduates who wish to become acculturated into the U.S. medical system in order to enhance competitiveness for a U.S. graduate medical education training program.
- Physicians who wish to enhance their clinical skills.
Structured Preceptorship Faculty
Faculty members are from Drexel University College of Medicine under the leadership of Nielufar Varjavand, MD.
View continuing medical education credit information and faculty disclosures for the structured preceptorship
Structured Preceptorship Goals and Objectives
The goals and objectives of the structured preceptorship address several maintenance of certification (MOC) objectives and core competencies defined by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), competencies set forth by Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the physicians' individual goals. They are:
Goals:
- To acquire information in the provision of up-to-date high quality patient medical care that is team based, compassionate and effective for the treatment of health problems and the promotion of health.
Objectives:
- Communicate effectively and demonstrate caring and respectful behaviors when interacting with patients
- Gather essential and accurate information about patients
- Make informed decisions about diagnostic and therapeutic interventions based on patient information and preferences, up-to-date scientific evidence and clinical judgment
- Develop patient management plans
- Counsel and educate patients
- Use IT to support patient care decisions and patient education
- Work with health care professionals to provide patient-focused care
Methods:
- Observing patient rounds with one health care team
- DxR—a software program that allows participants to completely care for a virtual patient
- Simulated patient exercises
- One-on-one teaching with a faculty preceptor
- Doctoring Curriculum: This weekly half-day session run by the director is comparable to the interns' ambulatory conference series for DUCOM's internal medicine residency program. Here, participants have the opportunity to learn and discuss core topics such as acculturation into current U.S. practices, physician well-being, documentation and coding guidelines, feedback skills, quality of care and disclosure of medical errors.
Assessment:
- Formative and summative evaluation by faculty preceptor
- Two sets of simulated patient exercises:
- At the beginning of the program, the first exercise will assess the observer's skills and provide guidance for learning.
- Towards the end of the rotation, a second standardized exercise will evaluate the participant's progress.
Goals:
- To demonstrate an investigatory and analytic thinking approach to clinical situations: problem identification and application of basic, social and clinical sciences for clinical reasoning.
Objectives:
- Demonstrate an investigatory and analytic thinking approach to clinical situations
- Know and apply the basic and clinically supportive sciences
Methods:
- Participants will have the opportunity to observe a health care team demonstrate complete patient care on working rounds.
- Participants will have opportunities for presentation of various clinical topics brought about by a particular patient on working rounds.
- Knowledge will be reinforced by preceptor discussions.
- Participants will attend a variety of lectures on clinical topics and will have access to a vast collection of recent online medical grand rounds and medical library.
- Participants will have access to DxR—a software program that allows participants to completely care for a virtual patient.
- At the end of the preceptorship, all participants may be asked to present a patient centered clinical topic to their group of peers, faculty preceptors and director.
Assessment:
- One-on-one discussion of medical cases with an assigned preceptor.
- Formal presentation to peers, preceptors and director.
Goals:
- To investigate, evaluate and improve patient care practices
- To appraise and assimilate scientific evidence
Objectives:
- Analyze practice experience
- Locate, appraise and assimilate evidence from scientific studies related to patient health problems
- Apply knowledge of study designs and statistical methods to the appraisal of clinical studies
- Use information technology to manage information, access online medical information and support own education facilitate learning of other health care professionals
Methods:
- Participants will complete assignments on topics identified on rounds and discussions based on patient care and trainees' needs.
- During the preceptorship, trainees will give a formal presentation on a particular situation raised by patient care which will demonstrate trainees' ability to access most recent data, present and teach a group of peers and faculty effectively. DxR—virtual patient care
- During weekly discussions with the director, participants will learn feedback skills used in teaching students or peers
Assessment:
- Through discussions with health care team and preceptor, participants will show evidence that s/he can use information technology to manage information, access on-line medical information; and advance his/her own education.Trainees will receive feedback on these reports.
- Presentations during rounds, to preceptor and at end of rotation.
- DxR
Goals:
- To demonstrate interpersonal and communication skills that result in effective information exchange and relationships with patients, their families and professional associates.
Objectives:
- Use effective listening skills
- Elicit and provide information using effective non-verbal, explanatory, questioning and writing skills
- Work effectively with others
Methods:
- Participants will be able to access a website funded by Drexel and American Academy on Communication and Healthcare (doc.com). This on-line multi-media resource has 40 modules demonstrating core and advanced topics in physician patient communication.
- Observing rounds with health care team.
- Doctoring Curriculum: This weekly half-day session run by the director is comparable to the interns' ambulatory conference series for DUCOM's internal medicine residency program. Here, participants have the opportunity to learn and discuss core topics such as acculturation into current US practices, physician well-being, documentation and coding guidelines, feedback skills, quality of care and disclosure of medical errors.
- Standardized patient exercises will include cases that address interpersonal and communication skills
Assessment:
- Verbal feedback from members of the health care team
- Participant's interactions with the simulated patient during the OSCE.
- Participants will be expected to complete one write-up of the standardized patient encounter to assess his/her writing skills and documentation, and will be asked to write up additional patients for whom they have observed intern or resident workups.
- While reviewing doc.com, participants will complete the multiple choice questions and free text answers in the assessment sections of each assigned doc.com module.
- Participants will be evaluated by the director during doctoring sessions.
- Immediate feedback from standardized patients, review of the video and feedback with faculty preceptor, and score.
- Interactions with faculty preceptor
Goals
- To demonstrate a commitment to carrying out professional responsibilities, adherence to ethical principles and sensitivity to a diverse patient population.
Objectives:
- Demonstrate respect, compassion and integrity; sensitivity to the needs of patients and society that supersedes self-interest; accountability to patients, society and the profession; and a commitment to excellence and on-going professional development
- Demonstrate a commitment to ethical principles pertaining to provision or withholding clinical care, confidentiality of patient information, informed consent and business practices
- Demonstrate sensitivity and responsiveness to patients' culture, age, gender and disabilities.
Methods and Assessment:
There will be a number of opportunities for evaluation and feedback so that participants can continuously improve their skills.
- Faculty preceptor
- Interaction with the medical team
- Standardized patient exercises
- Meetings with the director
- doc.com – physician patient communication skills
- Physician Refresher Course staff
Goals:
- To bring about an awareness of and responsiveness to the larger context of health systems.
- To bring about awareness of cost-effective health care and resource allocation, and system resources to provide care that is of optimal quality and value
Objectives:
- Understand how their patient care and other professional practices affect other health care professionals, the health care organization and the larger society and how these elements of the system affect their own practice
- Know how types of medical practice and delivery systems differ from one another, including methods of controlling health care costs and allocating resources
- Practice cost-effective health care and resource allocation that does not compromise quality of care
- Know how to partner with health care managers and health care providers to assess, coordinate and improve health care and know how these activities can affect system performance
Methods:
- Discussions as they arise on rounds and with preceptor
- Observing complete patient care on rounds
- attending conferences available to residents and fellows, including quality improvement conferences
- Weekly group meetings with director to discuss topics such as quality of care and error disclosure
- Care of the virtual patient on DxR
Assessment:
- Discussions with feedback from faculty preceptor and director
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