Preceptor Checklist

Supervised Practice Site Maintenance and Affiliation Agreements Policy

The Bowling Green State University Dietetic Internship Program (BGSU DI) will select, evaluate, and maintain supervised practice rotation sites in the areas of clinical (acute care), community, food service, long-term care, wellness, patient education, and elective. The BGSU DI program director will be responsible for ensuring that all sites provide quality, evidence-based instruction for students, and maintain a safe and inclusive environment. Each site will be required to sign a written Affiliation Agreement with BGSU College of Health and Human Services before placing students.

Procedures

Selection

• New supervised practice (SP) sites can be obtained when an intern suggests a site to the BGSU DI program director, or when BGSU DI faculty search out new sites to use for rotations. Occasionally, a site will contact the BGSU DI and offer their facility for rotations.
• Appropriate facilities for each rotation type vary but can include:
• • Clinical: Acute care hospitals and long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) that provide acute medical care. Any hospital-type medical center (Level 1-3 trauma center, community hospital) are acceptable clinical sites, however, facilities such as small, community hospitals may not meet intern needs of exposure to higher acuity levels. The Formal Case Study culminating experience requires a patient that has received nutrition support at some point during their hospital stay. Sites which cannot meet this requirement should be avoided.
  • Long-term care facilities that provide exposure to the Minimum Data Set (MDS) reimbursement system.
  • Community: Sites vary significantly and can include WIC, senior centers and daycare programs, schools, fitness facilities, worksites, health centers, food banks, Head Start, etc.
  • Foodservice: Hospital, long-term care facilities, and schools.
  • Wellness and patient education
• When considering a new site, the BGSU DI should communicate with the potential preceptor/site via email, telephone call, in-person, or virtual meeting, explaining how BGSU DI rotations are organized and the expectations for the rotation. They should also inquire as to what the site has to offer and verify that the activities will provide the appropriate amount of time and meet the competencies that will be assessed at that rotation.
• Adequate supervision should be verified by the BGSU DI program director. An RD on-site at community and food service sites is not required. If the preceptor is not an RD, they should have pertinent qualifications for the position (certified dietary manager, manager, other allied health professionals, etc.).
• If the site is selected, all preceptors will be asked to complete and submit the Preceptor Qualifications form to the BGSU DI, provide an up-to-date resume or CV, and evidence of training on awareness of bias in self and others.
• All BGSU DI preceptors will receive the BGSU DI Preceptor Handbook.

Evaluation and Maintenance

• SP sites are evaluated through the Intern Evaluation of the Preceptor form and periodic site visits. Intern evaluations should be completed by each student after each rotation and uploaded to Canvas LMS for BGSU DI faculty review. BGSU DI faculty responsible for the rotation assignments should verify that students are completing all site evaluations. Students failing to complete evaluations should be reminded via Canvas submission comment or BGSU email until completed.
• When site visits are completed, the visiting faculty or instructional assistant completes the SP Site Visit Form which includes a summary of the discussion with the preceptor and interns at the site. If a visit to a site is not possible, communication can take place via email, phone calls, or virtual meetings.
• All negative comments by students and poor ratings of sites should be thoroughly investigated. If BGSU DI faculty find that a site is not meeting standards then, depending on the egregiousness of the issue(s), the faculty can discuss issues with the preceptors to see if they can be remedied, or discontinue the use of the site.

Affiliation Agreements

• When a new site is selected, a written Affiliation Agreement (AA) must be signed. The BGSU DI program director contacts the site with a template of the AA for them to review and approve.
• The BGSU DI program director remains in close contact with the BGSU College of Health and Human Services (HHS) Associate Dean who serves as the college’s affiliation agreement manager and liaison to BGSU General Counsel. If a site’s legal counsel has questions, or if they want to use their own AA template, the BGSU DI program director collaborates with the affiliation agreement manager for approval.
• Once the site agrees to sign the AA, the BGSU DI program director uses Adobe Sign to obtain all electronic signatures. AAs are first signed by the site representative and then by the College of Health and Human Services Dean.
• Once the AA is complete, the BGSU DI program director sends a PDF of the completed AA back to the site via email for their records. The BGSU DI program director tracks the status of each distance intern’s AA using the Preceptor Collaboration Form.
• The BGSU College of Health and Human Services affiliation agreement manager maintains completed AAs as part of the College of Health and Human Services electronic or hard copy files.
• The BGSU DI program director also maintains BGSU DI-associated AA in an electronic folder as part of BGSU FN files.
• The HHS Associate Dean maintains an Excel file containing the expiration date for all AAs and shares that file with the BGSU DI program director. This allows the BGSU DI program director to regularly check that all AAs are active. When an AA is due to expire, the BGSU DI program director will initiate the signing of a new AA with the site if it’s still being used for rotations.