Dear PCC Preceptor,

Hope the clerkship is going well and the students are now an indispensable part of your practice!

Key Task: Prevent Idle Hands!
Students love to do things with their hands. I vividly remember the excitement of my first wart freezing! Office procedures such as joint injections, splinting/casting, biopsies, I&Ds, laceration repair, and gyn exams and procedures present wonderful opportunities to foster their enthusiasm for learning, discuss and demonstrate anatomy, and feel a sense of accomplishment.

In addition, students enjoy learning from and assisting your staff in taking blood pressures, giving shots, checking blood sugars, performing EKGs, administering hearing and vision screens, breathing tests and treatments, and other ‘everyday’ tasks.

What's Going on: Problem Based Learning (PBL) Case 4: a child with a chronic cough
Issues: Asthma, Smoking, Prevention in Children, URIs

To supplement this session you could:

• Discuss asthma managment strategies
• Talk about your philosophy regarding patients who smoke.

Reminders: The 10 Core Conditions for the Primary Care Clerkship are:

1. Hypertension
2. Diabetes Type 2
3. Depression
4. Asthma/Chronic Lung Disease
5. Chest Pain
6. Headache
7. Abdominal Pain
8. Acute Respiratory Infection
9. Well Child Check
10. Adult Physical or Wellness Visit

In the mid-rotation evaluation, your student should have noted if he/she needs more experience with any of these. Please consider if you could facilitate more practice in those areas. For example, if a student has not encountered a patient with chest pain, you could have him/her talk with a coronary artery disease patient about how their problem presented. Also, remember that the Simulated Cases can be used to supplement clinical learning experiences.

Community Project:
Please check in with your student to verify if he/she is working with you or another preceptor that he/she has finalized choices for a topic and has begun research.
Thanks again.

John Brill, MD
Director, Primary Care Clerkship
John.brill.md@aurora.org