Beaufort Memorial Emergency Room Doctor Chosen South Carolina’s Preceptor of the Year for 2016
April 19, 2016
Beaufort Memorial Hospital Emergency Department physician Saeed Rehman, MD, has been selected South Carolina Preceptor of the Year, an honor recognizing a practitioner for outstanding clinical education to health profession students.
Rehman was chosen from among hundreds of healthcare providers all over the state who volunteer to teach students as part of their practice.
“Dr. Rehman is a phenomenal teacher,” said Beaufort Memorial Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kurt Gambla. “It’s an especially difficult thing to do in the high-pressure, high-volume environment of the ER.”
The award was announced last month at the annual meeting of the South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium (AHEC), an organization established in 1972 in partnership with state teaching hospitals to educate, recruit and retain healthcare providers. AHEC representatives from the Lowcountry presented the plaque to Rehman April 13 at Beaufort Memorial Hospital.
An ER physician at BMH for 20 years, Rehman became involved with the preceptor program in 2000 and volunteers to teach at least one student during each of the eight clinical rotations offered annually. Last year, he served as preceptor for 10 physician assistant students.
“He’s always getting positive evaluations from his students,” said Kim Stephens, health professions student coordinator for the Lowcountry AHEC, one of four regional centers in the state. “They appreciate his wealth of knowledge and ability to teach, and thoroughly enjoy working with him.”
At the completion of their rotations last year, several of his students wrote letters to AHEC recommending Rehman for the Preceptor of the Year Award.
“I feel lucky to have been able to see and learn from Dr. Rehman’s interactions with patients,” physician assistant student Vanessa Clark wrote to the nominating committee. “Anyone can teach medicine, but nobody can teach the kind of respect and empathy that I saw Dr. Rehman deliver every hour of every day on every shift. Great preceptors teach the stuff that can’t be taught in a book, and this is where Dr. Rehman excels.”
