Are you interested in:

• gaining experience in a clinical setting?
• exploring the specialty of family medicine?
• making a long-lasting connection with a physician?
• working for diverse or underserved populations?

If so, the CAFP Foundation's Summer Preceptorship Program may be right for you!

The Summer 2008 Preceptorship Program is underway. If you are currently a participant in the program, please share your experiences with us! Your stories and photos may be used in future Preceptorship Program promotional materials.

Information about the 2009 Preceptorship Program will be available toward the end of 2008.

For more information about the program, read on:

Background
Since 1993, the California Academy of Family Physicians Foundation (CAFP•F) has been funding first-year medical students to explore careers in family medicine through CAFP's summer Family Medicine Preceptorship Program. Students who participate spend four weeks precepting full-time with a family medicine physician. Forty $1,200 scholarships are awarded to students on a competitive basis.

Rural and Urban Sites
Students are placed in a wide range of California locations and practices -- from inner city to rural locations, from HMOs to small group or private practices. Because many rural and inner-city communities continue to experience physician shortages and a lack of diversity, the CAFP•F strives to build student interest in serving these communities through this program.

Those precepting at rural sites are matched by staff. All other participants are matched with an urban or suburban family medicine physician by the Predoctoral Coordinator in their school's family medicine department, in consultation with CAFP.

For students who are not accepted to the rural track, assistance in finding preceptors outside of their school's local area is not available.

Rural Community Preceptorship
The community preceptorship allows students to rotate between multiple sites within the same rural community. This increases their exposure to the community as a whole, and gives them the opportunity to learn from physicians with different backgrounds and interests.

A Special Note about Rural Sites
Students selected to precept at rural sites will live in the communities they serve. CAFP will work with students to obtain housing in rural sites, but students will share the responsibility of securing their housing. Additional scholarship money may be available to fund travel and housing for rural preceptorships.

The Experience
Students generally have an observation-only preceptorship and are given the opportunity to see patient interviewing/history taking, physical exams, and procedures; however, practice experiences vary. In addition, students learn about patient-physician interactions and gain a basic knowledge of the scope and nature of family medicine. All preceptors must be CAFP members.