July 19, 2021

Takeaways from the network’s Faculty Development conference

Bruce Peyser, MD, FACP
Director of Education and Teaching, Duke Primary and Urgent Care
Provider, Duke Primary Care Pickett Road

Professor of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine

Duke Primary Care hosted 30 people at our November 2019 teaching conference, “Faculty Development for the Outpatient Clinician Educator.” The five presentations focused on ways providers can improve teaching skills.

Amna Shabbir, MD, MBBS, physician, education champion, and a quality representative at Duke Primary Care Creedmoor Road shares her takeaways from the day.

  1. Educators got updated on best practices for evaluating and grading learners. Using the EPA (Entrustable Professional Activity) and shared mental model, participants engaged in a worksheet to help learn objective ways of differentiating students for honors, high pass, or pass.
  2. Educators learned strategies for successful time management while being effective at teaching. Some pearls included schedule planning ahead of time, identifying patients appropriate for students to clerk, and aiming for one to three patients per clinic half day. Bedside teachings, including having the learner take targeted history and/or do the physical exam while the preceptor observes and records, can help in timeliness as well as direct observation. Other suggestions included tapping into learner strengths, such as motivational interviewing and patient education.
  3. It was valuable to get a refresher on methods of giving high-impact feedback. Learner self-assessment is an important part of this. Participants learned how to use the ask-tell-ask feedback model.
  4. A highly interactive session helped participants practice how to best help learners identify and achieve SMART goals. This was critical in understanding how to integrate and meet all the different goals learners bring to clinic. (SMART stands for goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.)
  5. The conference was capped by an extremely stimulating and humorous presentation aimed at better understanding the generational differences of learner behaviors as well as using these as strengths in education (“Millennials and Generation Z: What makes them tick?”).
  6. In summary, the conference was engaging, and participants learned ways to promote interprofessional teamwork. The serene setting of the Duke Integrative Medicine campus served as an optimal learning environment.