title: Brief report: Utilizing an audiotape for outpatient preceptor faculty development.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Faculty development for busy and geographically dispersed ambulatory preceptors is a difficult task for course directors.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  A faculty development audiotape intended for playing in the preceptor's car was created. The feasibility of this form of faculty development was tested in this pilot study.
  
  
  METHODS
  A short audiotape, focusing on strategies for the provision of independence to students in the office setting, was made and distributed to all preceptors of students taking a fourth-year required clerkship in ambulatory medicine. Preceptor behavior was reported by students on postclerkship evaluations before and after tape distribution.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the year before tape distribution, 21% of evaluations indicated a lack of independence on the part of the student, compared with 14% in the year following the intervention (P=.03). There was no regression of behavior among preceptors already providing independence. Among the preceptors initially identified as not following recommendations for student independence, the percentage of evaluations indicating a lack of independence went from 72% preintervention to 42% postintervention (P<.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A short audiotape is a novel form of faculty development, which was acceptable to preceptors and may influence teaching behavior in the desired manner.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, USA. willetlr@umdnj.edu
authors.forename: Laura Rees
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Willett
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care; D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005178:Faculty; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D011231:Preceptorship / Q000379:methods*; D013192:Staff Development; D013637:Tape Recording