#57 Clinician Educator Essentials: Practical Tips to Jumpstart your Teaching With Elizabeth Gatewood, DNP, FNP-C, CNE

August 13, 2025 | By Molly Heublein

Audio

Video

Transcript available via YouTube

Feeling overwhelmed by clinical teaching? In this episode of The Curbsiders Teach, we dive into the essentials every new educator should know—from setting expectations and building a positive learning climate to dropping high-value teaching pearls on the fly. Our expert guest Elizabeth Gatewood DNP, FNP-C, CNE shares her best advice, biggest surprises, and go-to strategies for making teaching efficient, meaningful, and fun. Whether you’re just starting out or refining your approach, this episode is packed with actionable insights you can use tomorrow.

Claim CME for this episode at curbsiders.vcuhealth.org!

Website | Instagram | Twitter | Subscribe | Patreon | CME!| Youtube

 thecurbsidersteach@gmail.com

Meet our Guest:

Elizabeth Gatewood, DNP, FNP-C, CNE, FAANP is the Assistant Dean of Education, Technology, and Innovation and a Clinical Professor in the School of Nursing.  She has worked to improve student experience and engagement utilizing technology. She is currently engaged in multiple initiatives utilizing Artificial Intelligence. In addition, she is particularly committed to equity. She has been the PI on multiple grants and received multiple teaching awards. Her current faculty practice is at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Family Health Center, the safety net for San Francisco’s underserved populations. She provides full scope family care. 

Show Segments

• Intro, disclaimer, guest bio
• Guest one-liner/ Best piece of advice
• Challenges to clinical teaching
• Establishing a learning climate/orienting a learner
• Goals and Feedback
• Teaching clinical reasoning/One Minute Preceptor
• Debriefing
• Teaching on the fly
• Focusing on Pearls
• Setting expectations
• Take home points
• Outro

Clinician Educator Essentials Pearls

1. Start with Orientation – Set the tone by clearly outlining expectations and goals; this builds psychological safety and helps learners feel prepared and supported from day one.
2. Use the One-Minute Preceptor Model – Even in busy clinics, you can teach effectively by using quick, structured prompts to assess reasoning and deliver focused teaching.
3. Keep it Digestible – Aim for 1–3 teaching points per patient; brief, well-placed pearls stick better than lengthy explanations.
4. Feedback is a Conversation – Invite learner reflection first, then provide specific, actionable input to guide growth without overwhelming.
5. Model Thoughtfully – Your behavior, humility, and adaptability are powerful teaching tools—what you do often teaches more than what you say.

Educator Essentials Show Notes 

Getting Started: Early Challenges and Surprises

New clinician educators often encounter unexpected challenges when stepping into teaching roles. One common surprise is the variability among learners. Educators may have little information about a learner’s background, experience level, or curriculum stage, which requires adaptability and a willingness to pivot teaching strategies in real time.

Another common hurdle is time management. Balancing patient care and teaching can feel overwhelming without deliberate planning. Although the pressure to maintain clinical productivity is real, educators can still find meaningful opportunities to teach by approaching the day with intention and flexibility.

Many clinician educators start out without formal instruction in teaching techniques and default to replicating what they experienced as learners—approaches that may not reflect current best practices. Recognizing this gap can be the first step in developing a more thoughtful, learner-centered teaching style (Spencer 2003).

Orientation and Goal Setting

Although certain clinical realities are out of an educator’s control, others can be shaped to enhance learning. Orientation to the clinical experience is one of these areas. Educators should request and review materials from educational program leadership when possible to better understand where in the curriculum a learner is and what the goals of the rotation are.  Providing learners with a pre-rotation orientation document can be helpful. This should include practical information about the clinic’s patient population, care team, logistics, and/or expectations (Gifford 2022).

During in-person orientation, educators can introduce learners to the entire team—including nurses, administrative staff, and ancillary services. Setting expectations early and inviting learners to share their personal and professional goals fosters mutual investment in the learning process.

Goal setting plays a central role throughout the rotation. Clinician educators should distinguish between macro goals (rotation-level objectives) and micro goals (day-specific tasks or skills) (Griffith 2024).  At the end of each clinic session, goals can be revisited through feedback conversations that include learner self-reflection and specific, actionable input from the educator. When time is limited, educators can follow up later in the day to maintain continuity.

Creating a Positive Learning Environment

A welcoming and inclusive learning environment enhances learner engagement and growth. Educators can normalize the realities and pressures of clinical care and also acknowledge and address the existence of microaggressions and systemic challenges. Framing the learning relationship as a shared journey—”I’m here with you; we’ll work through this together”—builds psychological safety.

Getting to know learners personally and professionally enables educators to tailor their teaching approaches. Simple questions about interests, prior experiences, and perceived strengths and challenges go a long way in building rapport and customizing learning (Rahimi 2024).

Teaching on the Fly: One-Minute Preceptor

In busy clinics, time-efficient teaching frameworks are essential. One widely used model is the One-Minute Preceptor (OMP), which helps integrate high-yield teaching moments into the clinical workflow:

• Step 1: Ask for a commitment (“What do you think is going on?”)
• Step 2: Probe for supporting evidence (“Why do you think that?”)
• Step 3: Teach a general rule
• Step 4: Reinforce what was done well
• Step 5: Correct mistakes (Neher 1992)

Even using just the first two or three steps regularly can significantly strengthen learners’ clinical reasoning skills. Remaining steps can be addressed later in the day when time allows. For a deeper dive into clinical teaching models/OMP, check out Teach Episode #12 on Precepting Models.

When learners struggle, educators can use exploratory, nonjudgmental prompts—such as “What else could this be?”—to encourage diagnostic curiosity.   Providing them with frameworks like “let’s think about an organ system approach” or “what might be a cardiac cause for these symptoms?” Modeling uncertainty and consultation as strengths rather than deficiencies helps learners develop humility and resilience.

High-Value Pearls 

Teaching is more effective when kept focused and digestible. Educators should aim to offer no more than one to three teaching points per patient.  On a busy day, assigning learners brief look-up tasks—with a commitment to follow-up—can be a powerful teaching tool. It’s important to close the loop on these assignments to underscore their educational value by reviewing them next session.

While teaching medical knowledge and clinical reasoning is important, focusing on other skills like management reasoning or equity are important too. Educators should highlight patient-centered adaptations, such as adjusting prescriptions based on housing status or transportation limitations. 

Clinician educators should also be mindful of their own modeling. Whether consulting colleagues, navigating complex patient cases, or managing patient dynamics, how educators behave teaches just as much as what they say.

Feedback and Learner Growth

Feedback is most effective when it fosters reflection and growth. Educators can start by asking learners to identify what they think went well, helping to reframe self-perceptions and elevate strengths. Supplementing this with direct observations allows for balanced, constructive dialogue (Burgess 2020).

For more of a deep dive into Feedback, check out Teach Episodes #1 Feedback Conversations and #48 Navigating Before and After Feedback Conversations.

Recognizing stereotype threat and expressing belief in learners’ potential reinforces a growth mindset. Feedback should be specific, actionable, and timely—aimed at helping learners progress without undermining confidence.

Continued Growth as a Clinical Educator

To evolve as educators, clinicians can seek out supportive communities and professional development resources. Institutional centers for teaching and faculty development often offer workshops, peer groups, and mentoring opportunities.

Other useful resources include:

• MedEdPORTAL for peer-reviewed teaching materials
• Just-in-Time Teaching app for on-demand strategies
• Journals such as Medical Education and Academic Medicine

Podcasts like Curbside Teach can also serve as accessible sources of insight and connection.

Take home Points: 

Teaching is fun!  As an educator, you are having a huge impact in the world; you are creating change for your learners and for all the patients that they will care for down the line. So by becoming an educator and leaning into this identity, the impact you have on the world is so much broader than only being a clinician. 

Goal

Listeners will develop a basic framework to approach clinical teaching.

Learning objectives

After listening to this episode listeners will…

1. Identify approaches for educators to understand and enhance the learning climate.
2. Apply techniques to support learning in a clinical environment
3. Select appropriate content for teaching in the clinical setting.

Disclosures

Dr Gatewood reports no relevant financial disclosures. The Curbsiders report no relevant financial disclosures. 

Citation

Heublein M, Kryzhanovskaya E, Gatewood E. “#57 Clinician Educator Essentials: Practical Tips to Jumpstart your Teaching. The Curbsiders Teach Podcast. https://thecurbsiders.com/teach. August 13, 2025.