A new online resource created by leaders in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, in collaboration with the Division of Continuing Medical Education, provides information and support for educators working with medical students, along with free CME credit.
The Clinical Teaching Resources page online offers a broad range of resources from guidance to directors running a clerkship, to teaching tips for preceptors, and videos with faculty sharing advice they wish they had known when becoming a preceptor.
“One of the greatest strengths of our medical school is the clinical curriculum, and strength is a direct result of the clerkship directors, clinical faculty and clinical preceptors who play such a key role teaching our students across our four campuses,” said James Willig, M.D., MSPH, assistant dean for Clinical Education in the Heersink School of Medicine. “Preceptors and clinician-educators play a huge role in meeting our education mission and training the next generation of physicians for Alabama, so we wanted to provide a resource our teachers can use to continue meeting the needs of our students as well as shared best practices amongst themselves.”
“All the resources offered are short, 10-12 minute videos designed to engage busy physician educators,” said Ronan O’Beirne, Ed.D., director of the Division of Continuing Medical Education in the Heersink School of Medicine. “Multiple units offer .25 hours of CME credit so we could provide added value for our faculty who are taking time to invest in their teaching skills.”
O’Beirne said he, Willig, and other school leaders have been working on this project in some fashion since 2017, as a way to meet a standard for preceptor education set by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. Faculty leaders across the school were engaged first in a needs assessment and feedback, then for providing expertise on clinical teaching to share with other educators.
Willig and O’Beirne said they see continuing to add more resources to the website as content is created to engage clinical educators. They invite students, in particular those with an interest in medical education, to reach out to them with content ideas they would like to pursue. Currently, instructors have a podcast series on bedside teaching available, the product of a scholarly activity project for Haddon Mullins, M.D., an alum currently completing residency in the UAB General Surgery Residency program.