Comparing ambulatory preceptors' and students' perceptions of educational planning

To compare ambulatory preceptors' and students' perceptions of the use of e ducational planning (setting goals, assessing needs, formulating objectives , choosing methods, and providing feedback and evaluation) in the office se tting, we mailed a survey, which was returned by 127 longitudinal ambulator y preceptors and 168 first-year and second-year medical students. Faculty p erceptions did not match student perceptions of what occurred in the longit udinal preceptor program teaching sessions in educational planning areas. S tudents perceived these activities were occurring with much less frequency than faculty perceived. Medical education needs to move beyond the usual fa culty development workshop paradigm to a more comprehensive educational dev elopment model that includes training both faculty and students in core edu cational skills. This will enable the ambulatory setting to reach its full educational potential in training future physicians.