The overall goal of this modular-based course is to provide faculty who play essential roles in the clinical education of students with opportunities to enhance and refine the mentoring, planning, and assessment skills that contribute to the educational quality of clinical rotations, internships, and preceptorships. The clinical mentor role can provide a sense of personal fulfillment and pride associated with contributing to the future of the profession, but the experience can also be frustrating when individuals are not comfortable with the numerous tasks and techniques associated with implementing a high-quality learning experience. This master teacher course (MTC) was designed to provide a continuum of modules, in three blocks, that address 21 key precepting skills and strategies.
Each MTC module is conducted in workshop format to encourage exchange of perspectives about clinical education issues and concerns and also to allow participants to acquire experience with important precepting best practices such as evaluating performance, serving as an effective mentor, providing constructive feedback, intervening with and helping students who are challenging (difficult), designing learning experiences that help students acquire specific competencies, using portfolios to assess performance, and introducing strategies for enhancing critical thinking.
Most of the modules have micro-teaching sessions (practice teaching) during which participants provide one-on-one teaching, teach procedural skills, give feedback, counsel students who are having difficulty, and conduct end-of-internship evaluation meetings. After each teaching experience, MTC participants receive peer feedback from other preceptors and from course instructors.