The Development of Newly Recruited Clinical Teachers at a Unique Regional Medical School Campus

Background Physicians who become clinical educators need to transform their clinical knowledge to be effective teachers. The objective of this year-long qualitative study was to understand new physician preceptors’ development as clinical teachers. We explored preceptors’ and students’ insights with regard to meaningful teaching and learning interactions to provide evidence for the developmental journey. Methods                                   Semi-structured interviews with the 9 new community hospital physicians and 37 medical students occurred at the beginning, weekly and at the end of the year. Weekly rounding observations were also completed. Interview recordings and observation notes were transcribed confidentially and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Results Irby’s forms of knowledge were selected as the underlying structure for presenting the results. For preceptors, the strongest areas were knowledge of medicine, patients and context. For students, knowledge of medicine was strongest. Knowledge of pedagogy and learners was an area of weakness for preceptors and more work is needed to continue their developmental growth. Conclusion This study provides evidence that new teacher-physicians experience learning processes similar to that of 3rd year students learning the clinical practice of medicine: it develops and deepens over time. New community physician preceptors require a robust, ongoing faculty development plan to enable more effective interactions for teaching and learning.