thoughts from a preceptor
It’s so strange.
I have students now. PA students. NP students. And med students.
Which is pretty cool. That someone somewhere thinks that I’m a competent adult and can teach things.
Having been a student not too long ago myself, I very clearly remember thinking each day, “How do I not piss off my preceptor and get a good eval for this rotation?”
I constantly was concerned about whether my preceptor liked me enough, whether I was dressed for the job, whether my notes said the right things, etc.
Damn, what a waste of emotional energy.
As a preceptor, I’m more concerned about keeping my critically ill patients from the brink of death than I am about whether your shoes are scuff-free. Quite frankly, if you came to your rotation without shoes on, there’s a 50/50 chance that I wouldn’t even notice.
As a preceptor, I care primarily about one thing:
That you care.
It really doesn’t matter to me what your knowledge base is. You’re a student. You’re here to learn.
For an eval, I’ll give excellent scores as long as you are patient-centered, respectful of everyone, and show a genuine interest. You don’t have to know everything. You don’t have to do everything. The only time I’d give a poor score is if you are horrible with patients or don’t seem to care about learning.
I’ll admit that, after students leave for the day, we do talk about you.
And here's some of the scoop:
“Amanda seemed really nervous before she went to see the patient. But the patient absolutely loved her. She doesn’t realize how good she is at this.”
“Eric knows his shit. I can’t believe that it’s only his second rotation.”
“Jamie asked if she could do the lumbar puncture. And, damn, she killed it. Can students bill for procedures?”
“Sam sat with the patient for an hour after we told the patient that he had cancer. I’m not sure how he did it, but Sam brought a lot of comfort to the patient.”
Had I known that these were the things that preceptors were saying, my anxiety level would’ve been so much more manageable.
But, hey, now you know!
Take a chill pill. You got this.
