Clinical Coordinators 101 Managing Your Investments - Part 2

PAEA Workshops

Clinical Coordinators 101 Workshop

Managing Your
Investments, Part II
Laura Gerstner

Learning Objectives

• Describe the various methods and timing of scheduling clinical

rotations
• Discuss student preferences to consider when scheduling
clinical rotations
• Discuss the competition for clinical sites
• Explore creative strategies for communication & collaboration
with other colleges, programs, professions to maximize clinical
training opportunities

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Student preferences/choosing of
rotations?
• Do you allow students to choose or rank their rotations?

• What information do you collect from students to use in

scheduling their rotations?
• Home location – anywhere? Specific regions?
• Speak Spanish?
• Prior HCE?
• Likes/dislikes at this point in time?
• Level of interest in OB or trauma?
• Interest in rotations at VA or military sites?

The Method(s) to the Madness!

• What method do you use to schedule clinical rotations?

• How far in advance do you give students their clinical rotation

schedules?

• Must you follow scheduling protocols for shared sites with other
medical/PA programs?

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Special considerations when scheduling

• What do you take into account when creating the schedule?

• Desired home location?
• Family/children?
• Pets?
• Student personalities?
• Didactic year faculty recommendations/notes?
• Others?

Switching gears – the Competition is real!

So many programs….. Too few sites….

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Current Programs

http://www.arc-pa.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Number-of-Accred-Programs-9.2016.pdf

Projected Growth of PA Programs-as of 10/18/2016

236 with 51 in the queue

as of 8/12/2018

http://www.arc-pa.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/current-and-projected-growth-10.2016.pdf

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Clinical Coordinators 101 Managing Your Investments - Part 2

The 3 C’s of Clinical Education: Courtesy,

Communication, and Collaboration

• PAEA Networker Issue Brief, Dec 2015

• Updated version of the original APAP (PAEA) Guidelines

of Courtesy Regarding Collaboration on the use of clinical
training sites (1998)
• APAP member programs, through their directors of clinical education or
clinical experience coordinators, agree to a spirit of cooperation and
collaboration in the use of clinical training sites.

• Programs recognize the need for clinical coordinator-to-clinical

coordinator communication, and the need for all preceptors to be asked
by students and clinical faculty if they are or have been preceptors for
other programs-these programs to be notified if yes.

3 C’s continued
• Programs that use that clinical site that has been identified as having been
previously used by other programs will follow up with those programs regarding
the quality of the experience.

• Programs and clinical coordinators agree to be sensitive to the issues of

preceptor burnout and student quality when collaborating on clinical training
sites.

• If collaborating at a site with another program, consider innovative training

opportunities – i.e. team-based training

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Clinical Coordinators 101 Managing Your Investments - Part 2

PAEA Recommendations:

• Open & regular communication between programs in close

geographic regions
• PA Programs DO NOT “own” clinical sites or preceptors
(exclusivity)

Implementation/Relationship Building:

• Attend regional CC groups/meetings

• Reach out to regional CCs
• If contacted by another program’s PA student about rotations,
ask them to have his/her CC contact you directly (program-
program)
• Communication re: open slots

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Improving collaboration

• Avoid placement that would knowingly displace other students

• Simplify onboarding steps for visiting students
• Share infrequently used sites
• Avoid placing “problem students” at shared sites
• Include preceptors in conversations between programs
• Develop & promote your student participation in educational
opportunities between PA programs
• Partner with neighboring program when negotiating new sites
• Centralized scheduling?

“Friends with Benefits”

• Joint scholarship ventures

• Sharing of new information on shared health systems
• Pinch placements!
• Others?

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Real-life examples…

• NC clinical coordinators bi-annual meeting/dinner

• CO – centralized scheduling
• MA – Opioid curriculum collaboration at the state level
• Others?

Collaboration really does exist!

Precepting…
• Our Ultimate Goal as Clinical Coordinators

• No “secret recipe” for successful precepting

• Find the appropriate place
• Provide the adequate light
• Nurture
• Protect
• And give time to grow!

• Mastering the Preceptor Role: Challenges of Clinical Teaching; Burns, Catherine, PHD, RN, CPNP,
FAAN et al; Journal of Pediatric Health Care, Volume 20; Number 3

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Key - Recruit, Retain, Reward

Invest in:
• Creativity
• Think Collaboration “outside
the box”
• Educational support
• Institutional support
• The Future

Resources
• www.paeaonline.org
• Multiple valuable resources: preceptor handbook, articles and
presentations about clinical teaching
• The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine http://www.stfm.org/
• Mountain Area Health Education Consortium
https://mahec.net/residency-and-student-info/student-rotations-
ORPCE
• ARC-PA
https://www.arcpa.org/accreditation/accredited-programs/

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