Pediatric Collections: Enriching Pediatric Learning: A Guidebook for Preceptors

COMSEP, the Council of Medical Student Education in Pediatrics, is a community of pediatric educators committed to supporting each other and delivering excellent pediatric education to medical students. The articles and commentaries in this Pediatric Collection, titled Enriching Pediatric Learning: A Guidebook for Preceptors, have been written by COMSEP members, and the principles of our organization have driven much of their work. COMSEP's guiding principles articulate what its members believe to exemplify excellence in medical student education: Teaching should be excellent, innovative and scholarly; The learning environment should be safe and enjoyable for all; and Patient/family centeredness, teamwork, professionalism, humanism, and service are essential core values of pediatrics. Another principle is that Pediatric medical student education makes all students better doctors. We recognize that not everyone whom we teach will become a pediatrician, nor will they ultimately care for children in their practice. But we also recognize that many of the skills they learn and the behaviors they observe while working with children, families, and pediatric professionals will influence their growth and may, ultimately, affect the physicians and surgeons they become. The 35 articles in this Collection have been grouped by themes and together they describe skills and strategies to improve clinical teaching. The authors and editorial board have tried to imagine the clinical practice of a busy preceptor in a variety of settings--rural or regional or urban practice, community hospital, academic center--and have tried to provide an article that is succinct and captivating with practical tips that can be put in to use that day with a trainee. We hope that this Collection, too, will be a practical resource that will support preceptors and educators in their quest to teach, assess, and inspire the medical students with whom they work.