PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF THE ABFM/STFM PRECEPTING PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT PILOT

The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) and the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) have wrapped up a pilot program that offers Performance Improvement continuing certification credit (previously MOC Part IV) to ABFM diplomates who provide personal instruction, training, and supervision to a medical student or resident and who participate in a teaching improvement activity.

Forty-two academic units (Sponsors) were selected to participate through an application process. Thirty-three completed the requirements of the program and submitted a final report:

• Albany Medical College Department of Family and Community Medicine

• Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Department of Family and Social Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center

• Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine

• Cook County Family Medicine Residency, Chicago, IL

• Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Department of Family Medicine

• Emory University, Department of Family & Preventive Medicine, Undergraduate Medical Education Division

• Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine

• Florida International University, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Department of Humanities, Health, and Safety

• Health Alliance – Fitchburg Family Practice Residency, Fitchburg, MA

• Medical University of South Carolina Family Medicine Residency/Trident Medical Center, Charleston, SC

• New York Medical College, Family Medicine Residency at Saint Joseph’s Medical Center, Yonkers, NY

• Offutt Air Force Base Family Medicine Residency, Nebraska

• Penn State College of Medicine, University Park Regional Campus

• Penn State Family and Community Medicine, Hershey, PA

• Quinnipiac University, Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine

• Samaritan Family Medicine Residency, Corvallis, OR

• Temple University, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Department of Family & Community Medicine

• Texas Tech University Health Science Center—Amarillo

• UHS Wilson Family Medicine Residency, Johnson City, NY

• University of California, Davis, Department of Family and Community Medicine

• University of California, Riverside, School of Medicine

• University of Kentucky, Department of Family and Community Medicine

• University of Minnesota Family Medicine and Community Health Medical Student Education, Twin Cities Campus

• University of Missouri Health, Department of Family and Community Medicine

• University of North Carolina School of Medicine

• University of North Dakota Family Medicine Residency, Fargo, ND

• University of Oklahoma, OU-TU School of Community Medicine

• University of South Carolina, Greenville School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine/Greenville Health System

• University of Texas RGV/DHR Family Medicine Residency

• University of Utah, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine

• Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Family Medicine and Population Health

• Western Michigan University, Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine Family Medicine Residency, Kalamazoo

• West Virginia University, Eastern Campus and the Harpers Ferry Family Medicine Residency

During the pilot, which ran from April through December of 2018, Sponsors worked with preceptors to:

• Identify areas of teaching that needed improvement

• Create aims for improvement that included desired goals and timeframes for achieving improvement

• Conduct interventions

• Measure improvement

To receive the performance improvement credit, preceptors also had to complete 180 1:1 teaching hours. On the final report, Sponsors said that “with regard to providing incentive for teaching and implementing a performance improvement activity,” 180 hours was about right (67%), too much (30%), or not enough (3%). A few of those who said too much under stood incorrectly that the 180 hours had to be completed during the 8-month pilot project.

Sponsors reported that 353 preceptors were involved in the pilot; 30% were community preceptors and 70% were preceptors employed by academic units. On average, each Sponsor engaged 3 community preceptors and 8 employed faculty. As a whole, Sponsors were able to recruit or reengage 27 preceptors as a result of this project.

Learners included first-year students (4%), second-year students (6%), third-year students (37%), fourth-year students (9%), and residents (44%).

Sponsors generally felt that preceptors who participated in the project improved their teaching performance/skills/knowledge. There were project challenges, however, including:

• Resistance from preceptors about making time for interventions

• Difficulty getting buy-in from community preceptors

• Not enough time on the front end for Sponsors to understand all of the project details and to prepare appropriately

Sponsors recommended the following changes/additions to the program:

• Provide materials to communicate the details to preceptors so there is no confusion about teaching hours necessary or specifics about the credit they can get

• Provide predetermined Performance Improvement projects that have been proven to work

• Share examples of assessment tools that have been used successfully

Several sponsoring institutions presented their results at the 2019 Conference on Medical Student Education. STFM and ABFM plan to publish results broadly.

• © 2019 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.