REBEL MIND – The One-Minute Preceptor: Making Every Patient Encounter a Teaching Opportunity

Key Points

REBEL Rundown

The One-Minute Preceptor can be used during nearly every patient encounter, helping overcome the common barrier of “when do I have time to teach?”

Focus on delivering one high-yield teaching pearl rather than overwhelming learners with too much information.

Provide real-time feedback by reinforcing what was done well while also addressing areas for improvement.

Designed for the fast-paced ED or ICU environment, the One-Minute Preceptor can often be completed in about 60 seconds.

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Introduction

Welcome back to Rebel MIND, the podcast where we sharpen the person behind the practitioner. MIND stands for Mastering Internal Negativity during Difficulty. This series emphasizes productivity, provider performance, and team optimization to ensure we are at our best during high-pressure situations. Your brand-new intern sprints over, wide-eyed and enthusiastic, ready to present their patient in a way that somehow includes every detail except the important ones. Just as you start mentally reorganizing the story, they ask, “Any feedback?” The ED is slammed, your phone is ringing, and three tasks are already overdue. This is exactly where the One-Minute Preceptor shines. A new group of interns has arrived, and with them comes one of the greatest challenges in emergency medicine: trying to teach while the ED is on fire. One of the most common barriers to teaching in the emergency department is the feeling that there simply is not enough time. Between overcrowding, documentation, interruptions, task switching, and managing critically ill patients, bedside teaching can quickly fall to the bottom of the priority list. Over time, this has contributed to a steady decline in bedside teaching across medical education.1 At the same time, the ED remains one of the richest learning environments in medicine. The combination of undifferentiated patients, high-acuity pathology, rapid decision-making, and constant clinical exposure creates countless opportunities for teaching… if we can find efficient ways to do it.2 Originally described as a learner-centered model for efficient clinical teaching, the One-Minute Preceptor uses five microskills to structure brief but meaningful teaching interactions around real patient encounters. Importantly, the goal is not to teach in literally one minute, but rather to create teaching conversations that are focused, efficient, and practical for busy clinical settings like the ED.3

Cognitive Question

How can we provide meaningful bedside teaching in a busy emergency department?

The Framework

The One-Minute Preceptor uses five microskills to structure efficient bedside teaching conversations: Get a commitment from the learner Probe for supporting evidence Teach a brief general principle Reinforce what was done well Correct mistakes in real time

Why This Works?

The One-Minute Preceptor works because it transforms learners from passive observers into active participants in clinical reasoning. Instead of immediately giving answers, the framework asks learners to commit to a diagnosis and explain their thought process. This not only promotes clinical reasoning, but also allows teachers to quickly identify knowledge gaps, deliver focused teaching pearls, and provide real-time feedback, all while keeping the interaction brief enough for a busy ED shift.3

How This Applies to the Emergency Department or ICU?

Get a commitment from your learner“What do you think is going on with this patient complaining of dizziness?”

Probe for supporting evidence“What findings led you to the diagnosis of vertigo?”

Teach a brief, general principle “Ongoing debilitating dizziness or severe gait instability should always raise concern for a central cause”

Reinforce what was done right “You did a great job attempting to ambulate the patient and performing a focused neurologic exam.”

Correct errors “Don’t forget to include cerebellar testing,