Primary Care Practicum

Faculty Information

Community faculty teaching within the PCP can refer to this page for more information on course structure, attendance and evaluation, as well as responsibilities and expectations while working with their student(s). Faculty can also refer to the Resources page, which includes calendars, faculty appointment applications, faculty development information and resources, as well as the Clinical Faculty Benefits page. Preceptors volunteering as participants in the PCP are encouraged to sign up for faculty appointment in order to access UW systems more easily and take full advantage of clinical faculty benefits.

Course Structure

Students will be assigned to your clinic for a minimum of 15 half days about every other week during their first year of the Foundations Phase. Faculty can find region-specific dates and timelines on the Regional Sites page.

Your teaching will focus on what you are seeing your clinic, and you are not expected to deliver any curricular content. We will keep you up-to-date on the curriculum via a bi-weekly update sent out every Monday.

Attendance

Students are expected to inform their preceptor about any absences, just as preceptors should let their student(s) know if they plan to be out of the clinic on a scheduled PCP day (i.e., planned vacation), in advance. If this should be the case, preceptors can also choose to arrange an alternative – but equal – experience with another physician in their practice.

Make up options include:

  • Arranging an alternate activity for that day, such as working with another physician in the clinic
  • Scheduling a make-up on another day that is mutually convenient for student and preceptor and does not conflict with scheduled class time.
  • As a last resort for an unplanned absence, students can do an online case-based learning case.

While a full day is blocked on the suggested dates, if you do not work those dates, you can arrange an alternate schedule. Students and preceptors should exchange contact information that is good for last minute updates. All PCP sessions are required, and any missed session must be made up on a day that works best for both the student(s) and the preceptor(s).

Suggested dates for the first term of 2023-2024 PCP are: 1/10 (#1), 1/24 (#2), 2/7 (#3), 2/21 (#4), 3/6 (#5), 3/20 (make-up), 3/27 (#6), 4/10 (#7), 4/24 (#8), 5/15 (#9, Cascade), 5/29 (#9, Olympic), 6/5 (#10)

Evaluations

PCP students are evaluated each term based on milestones. The milestones for each term describe specific behaviors that a student should be able to demonstrate at that point in time based on their Foundations of Clinical Medicine curriculum and time in the Primary Care Practicum.

Faculty will be added to the University’s evaluation system, E*value. Towards the end of each term, faculty and their students should connect about their PCP experience up to that point; talk about goals, what went well, and what can students be doing to improve their skills. This will help faculty when completing the evaluation about their student(s).

You can find a faculty user guide for E*value here.

In order to be added to eValue, faculty should send a preferred email address and their date of birth to the PCP Team.

Teaching Responsibilities

Responsibilities that our faculty have include:

  1. Student supervision (i.e., guide patient selection, keep up-to-date on what the student is currently learning, etc.);
  2. Ongoing student feedback and evaluation (i.e., providing ongoing feedback, give written feedback, etc.);
  3. Faculty development, collaboration, and program feedback (i.e., attend faculty orientation and development sessions, provide feedback for programmatic improvement, etc.)

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of experience is this?

 This is not a shadowing experience. The goal is for the student to obtain clinical experience with increasing independence (always supervised).

What can a student do on day one?

Students will be able to do a basic history and physical exam by the first session. They will continue to learn clinical skills throughout their medical school curriculum.

What are the objectives of PCP?

Students have an “assignment tracker” to log the activities they do in clinic. We hope they will have the opportunity to practice most of the advanced skills they learn in their clinical skills workshops.

What access to electronic medical records do they need?

It is good for students to have reading access, but remember that they need to think through and learn what information is relevant for a given patient concern. We hope students will have read only access at a minimum.

What else can students do?

Escort patients to the lab or front desk, follow patients to specialty appointments or x-rays, etc. They are are permitted to participate in procedures such as pap smears, cyrotherapy, MSK injections, IUD placement, suturing, vital signs, etc. within the preceptor’s comfort zone and institutional policy. They can obtain relevant forms and look up a clinical question, as well.