How Students Can Improve the Quality of Care in Your Practice
Students can get hands-on education while adding value to your clinic by working with your team on quality improvement projects. Chances are that your clinic is already working on one or more projects to improve efficiency, patient safety, or clinical outcomes. Your students will benefit from participating in these projects and your staff will save time through additional interventions performed by students.
Introduce your student to the team members leading improvement projects, and ask them to look for tasks where the students can contribute during a clerkship. For example, you may find that students can participate in projects by completing screening questionnaires with patients, coordinating follow-up care calls, giving immunizations, or reconciling medications in the EHR.
Quality improvement is defined as "a method for continuously finding better ways to provide better patient care and service." Encourage your students to see quality improvement projects as a fundamental component of successful clinical practice.
More About What to Teach
Visit the What to Teach section for more examples of ways to increase the understanding of family medicine by students at your clerkship.