Medical student evaluation of family nurse practitioners as teachers

Background: Demands on family medicine faculty to generate clinical revenue may negatively impact the undergraduate medical education program. To minimize this possibility and better model interprofessional education, family nurse practitioners (FNPs) were hired as clinicians and teachers as part of a longitudinal family medicine clerkship. This paper reports the results of a pilot study of student evaluations of nurse practitioners teaching. Methods: All M3 and M4 students were asked to evaluate one of three FNPs who had precepted them multiple times during their previous year of ambulatory care practice. Two previously studied closed-ended questionnaires were used to assess quality of teaching by the FNPs. Students also responded to a series of open-ended questions. Results: Ninety-one percent of 97 students responded to the survey. Responses to the closed-ended questions as well as comments by the students and physicians were positive regarding the teaching by FNPs. The teaching skills most highly regarded by the students tended to be different than those most highly regarded in physicians. Conclusions: This pilot study suggests FNPs can be successfully integrated into undergraduate medical education settings, offering teaching strengths that complement those of physicians. Integrating the two professions in a family medicine clerkship may prove beneficial to students and expand departmental teaching resources without further straining finances. Efforts at evaluating and teaching contributions of FNPs at other institutions are needed to substantiate the present study results.