Saeed Rehman, MD, Named 2016 South Carolina AHEC Preceptor of the Year

Saeed Rehman, MD, has been selected as the 2016 South Carolina AHEC Preceptor of the Year in recognition for his unwavering commitment to health professions students’ clinical education.  The purpose of this award is to bring recognition to an outstanding community-based preceptor serving South Carolina health professions students. Each year practitioners volunteer to provide hours of clinical education to students from various health professions. It is their dedication to the education of the next generation of health professionals that we honor with this award.

Dr. Rehman has been an ER physician at Beaufort Memorial Hospital for 20 years and the emergency room director since 1999. Since 2000, he has participated in health professions students’ education.  Primarily, he precepts medical students and physician assistant students.  Each year when asked about his availability to precept, Dr. Rehman requests a physician assistant student for every rotation. He is always eager to precept and will often train more than one student at the same time, exposing them to a wide variety of clinical experiences. Last year, he precepted 10 students.

Students rated Dr. Rehman very highly for his concern for student learning and his ability to provide high quality feedback.  One student said, “True educators and, thus, excellent preceptors are also patient, accepting, understanding, challenging, and dynamic. All of these are traits that Dr. Rehman possesses and which make learning from him a wonderful experience. He knows when to ask probing questions and when to let a student figure it out for herself. He knows when to challenge and when to guide with a gentle hand. He knows when to invite active participation and when observation might be best. The greatest challenge of teaching is that no two students learn the same way. Dr. Rehman intuitively understands this and adapts his teaching and educational style to the student and to the situation. His calm demeanor and non-judgmental attitude make students feel welcome, accepted, comfortable, and excited to learn.”

Another student wrote, “I felt inspired working with Dr. Rehman and learned not only emergency assessment, but procedural intervention, and how to use foundational approaches to primary care. He demands a lot in return for my gain from his leadership, working more hours and seeing more patients than other rotations, in addition to reading assignments and providing oral reports. Yes, totally exhausting at times, but in the end, I took an amazing ride on a thrilling medical roller coaster with my hair blown away at the amount of education that I gained!”