Mike Huckabee, Ph.D., sees UNMC’s preceptor network, which stretches across the state of Nebraska, as an integral part of UNMC’s mission to positively impact health care throughout the state.
Get involved
The Rural Health Care Education Interest Group meets on the fourth Tuesday of every month. Interested members of the UNMC community are invited to attend. For more information, contact Kristan Lester.
Dr. Huckabee, who along with Russ Buzalko, Ph.D., is a co-chair of the Interprofessional Academy of Educators’ Rural Health Care Education Interest Group, sees the group’s mandate as supporting the preceptor network. The two co-chairs are supported by Julie Morbach, assistant professor, medical imaging & therapeutic sciences, in the College of Allied Health Professions, who serves as secretary.
“Our preceptors often are tapped heavily, and some of them feel maxed out by the needs that UNMC presents in the midst of their busy clinical practice,” said Dr. Huckabee, who is professor and program director of the physician assistant program in the CAHP. “So, how do we continue to grow those who would have a commitment and interest in teaching, precepting and mentoring? And for those that are already doing a great job for us, how do we help them manage their work-life balance?”
“Our primary mission is to reach out to the rural providers, no matter what their specialty is in health care,” said Dr. Buzalko, who is assistant professor, emergency medicine. “We try to offer our services and resources to them to make their lives better as educators and health care providers. But also, we’d like to bring back lessons learned from the rural community and implement them in the best interests of our folks here on campus.”
The Rural Health Care Education Interest Group is currently participating, along with other interest group collaborators, on a web-based preceptor toolkit.
“It will put tools in the hands of preceptors to have them informed and equipped to handle their roles as teachers,” Dr. Huckabee said.
Surveys already have identified some areas preceptors see as needs, and the IAE interest groups, including rural health, are working through the toolkit to provide supports.
In addition, the IAE plans to host a conference at the UNMC Health Science Education Center at the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus, featuring a speaker that Dr. Huckabee said has a “national reputation” to speak on burnout and work-life balance.
The conference is the priority project of the Rural Health Care Education Interest Group and the Learning Environment/Wellness Interest Groups, Dr. Huckabee said.
“This will be our first opportunity to say, ‘We are here,’ and not something limited to Omaha. Being able to offer it out of our medical campus at Kearney allows us to showcase that, but also to reach out to the network of preceptors that are truly teachers for us and make them feel engaged in our network. That is certainly the goal.”