What did we learn about the impact on community-based faculty? Recommendations for recruitment, retention, and rewards

All ten schools participating in the Interdisciplinary Generalist Curriculu m (IGC) Project were required to offer students significant generalist long itudinal preceptorship experiences during the first two years of medical sc hool. Each school needed to recruit and then retain many new preceptors to meet the continued large demand. Effective recruitment was usually carried out by established community physicians and/or qualified staff coordinators . Retention of preceptors required establishing regular and succinct commun ications, quick response to problems, and flexible faculty development prog rams. For rewards, preceptors primarily requested acknowledgment and apprec iation, along with tangible rewards such as decreased fees for continuing m edical education and library or e-mail access. Preceptors continue to state that they teach because of the "joys of teaching" even in the current envi ronment with increased demands for productivity This article describes what has been learned about recruitment, retention, and rewards for community p receptors and how to maximize the positive impacts and minimize the negativ e impacts of teaching for community preceptors.