I am a fairly new provider to DPC and have spent the last 18 months getting to know my panel of patients, and I am currently meeting the work expectations of my group. I think I am ready to teach a student. What should I do?- Provider 1
Dear Provider 1-
We are glad you waiting to start teaching. We all want new providers to focus their energy and time on getting to know their new panel of patients. Once you are ready to teach, I would approach your practice medical director and discuss the various teaching assignments that have been made already. Almost every primary care site has learners that are assigned to rotate at the site- the teaching of these learners is shared by nearly everyone at the clinic. I would work with your PMD to have one of the students begin to rotate with you perhaps for one-half day a week for a few weeks, to try out some outpatient teaching. If this is something that you enjoy and want to do more teaching, I would speak to your PMD further to explore other options for teaching which could involve having a student come work just with you over a longer time period or more frequently than one-half day per week.
We understand that providers receive a stipend for teaching. How does this work, and what do I need to do to be sure that I get paid? Provider 2
Dear Provider 2-
At the end of each month, the HCA and the PMD from your clinic will confer to review details of who was involved in teaching students. You should just confirm with your PMD that he/she has the correct details and information about how often you taught during the month. Our HCA’s share this information with Macy Brown at DPC admin, who organizes it and then passes it along to DPC finance.
Upon approval, a stipend of $75 is paid to the primary care providers for each 4 hr session that they teach. This money is added to one’s paycheck in the month following the submission of the work by the HCA. There are some taxes and expenses that have to be deducted (called “fringe”) from the $75 , so the exact amount received is closer to $60. So if 10 sessions are taught, a provider might expect a total of about $600 to be paid for that teaching- this will be added into one’s paycheck under the heading of “flat sup”.
I want to teach and have done some, but I would like to improve upon my teaching skills. How can I receive some coaching or training to learn how to be a better teacher? Provider 3
Dear Provider 3
There are a lot of ways that providers within DPC can improve their skill sets. The easiest way to do this is to first look for a review of a teaching topic that is published near the beginning of each month within the DPC This Week in the Network newsletter that is sent to everyone’s email. Additionally, you could sign up to receive summaries of teaching articles that are of interest to outpatient educators ( you can sign up here…. ). Another way to improve your teaching skills is to spend a half day at a DPC-sponsored faculty development session. These occur every 6 months and are very focused and specific to the needs of our providers. Our next session will occur in the fall and hopefully will be held live at a site near to many practices.
I had thought that all of our teaching assignments were planned out a year in advance. But I periodically receive requests from various individuals who want to come to learn outpatient medicine in our clinic. Some of these folks are even connected to Duke. But they are not enrolled in a Duke graduate program. Can I agree to precept one of these students, and will I get paid for this teaching effort?
Provider 4
Dear Provider 4-
It is an honor that you have a student who wants to come work with you, but unfortunately, this arrangement rarely works out.
We have close to 350 placements of students within Duke Primary Care and these assignments are prioritized so that the placements are shared by medical students, PA students, NP students, and MBS students (Master of Biologic Science). Even with all of our providers, many of whom teach multiple students at different times, we still don’t have enough space for all of our students, and we have to turn down at least 250 other Duke students who want to come work with us but can’t. So we have prioritized our placements to go to the students enrolled in Duke programs and that commitment has not changed or fluctuated over the last five years. Additionally, there are no funds that are used to pay any of the providers who want to perhaps teach a student outside of a Duke program.
We ask that you decline these invitations at this juncture.
These 4 questions relate to areas of confusion surrounding our teaching efforts. If you have other questions, please let me know so I can answer them for you.
Thank you for all of your teachings. It is HUGELY appreciated!
Bruce Peyser MD