Physician Assistant (PA) education is based on a model of didactic instruction followed by clinical experiences under the supervision of practicing health care providers, termed "clinical preceptors." These supervised clinical practice experiences provide real-world opportunities for students to practice the skills of patient care and…

The purpose of this article is to describe a collaborative effort among five teacher preparation programs to create a conceptual tool designed to put clinical experiences at the center of our programs. The authors refer to the resulting product as a clinical curriculum. The clinical curriculum describes a developmental sequence of clinical…

The authors synthesize preliminary findings from an interdisciplinary study of the practicum/clinical phase of undergraduate pre-service education in the professions. Early data analysis identified similarities and differences across disciplines in terms of: (a) the terminology describing each practicum program, (b) the programs' key…

Details evolution of a Boston University (Massachusetts) dental school program providing field experience in private practices, community health centers, hospital-based ambulatory health centers, health maintenance organizations, and the school's predoctoral treatment centers. Issues discussed include integration of classroom and field learning,…

A preceptorship model of clinical teaching for medical education is presented. Based on the view that physicians use precepting skills in patient care, preceptorship is seen as an opportunity for medical students to learn to practice ambulatory medicine away from the medical center. A model called "Johari Window" is adapted to explain the…