Objectives:
New guidelines require preceptors to deliver approximately 30%
of the doctor of pharmacy curricula. With preceptor’s increasing
responsibilities, colleges are faced with the task of training
preceptors as educators. Identifying preceptor’s training format
preferences (i.e. electronic vs. live) should contribute to the
more effective and efficient creation of training materials and
programs.
Methods: A preceptor training video was created and made available
electronically and was distributed to 400 preceptors with a brief
2-part questionnaire about preceptor training preferences, electronic
training preferences after viewing the video, and available technology
resources for participating in electronic training.
Results: 38.25% of the questionnaires were returned. The majority
of respondents (57%) preferred electronic to live preceptor developing
training and the majority (53%) had not previously attended the
live annual preceptor development conference offered by the college.
51.6% participants reviewed the electronic training video created
by the OU College of Pharmacy. Of the respondents who did not
watch the video, 73% cited having too little time, problems accessing
the video, or technical reasons for not watching the training
video. The majority of responders in all age groups preferred
electronic training to face-to-face training except those ages
61-65 and the majority (55.7%) would participate in on-line training
again in the future. The majority of respondents have the technical
resources to participate in electronic training.
Conclusion: Preceptors have limited time to participate in preceptor
development training, although they view training as an important
activity. This study reveals three main findings: (1) the majority
of preceptors prefer electronic preceptor development training
programs regardless of age; (2) would participate in future electronic
training after having participated in electronic training; and
(3) have the available resources to participate in electronic
training. Future preceptor development programs should have flexible
formats to accommodate preferences for live and electronic programming.
