Are you a first-year California medical student interested in:

• Gaining experience in a clinical setting?
• Exploring the family medicine specialty?
• 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! 

Only students with an active AAFP/CAFP membership or a pending membership application are eligible.  Please see section on the eligibility and selection criteria for additional information.

The deadline to apply was Friday, March 13, 2009.  All notifications will be mailed to the applicants by April 15.  Information on the 2010 Summer Preceptorship Program will become available early February, 2010. 

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.  Participating students 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.

Preceptors 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.  Click here to read about the sites available through the rural track.

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.  Click here to read past participants' testimonials.

If you were a participant in the program, please share your experiences with us!  Your stories and photos may be used in future Preceptorship Program promotional materials.  You may send your feedback and photos to Dasha Sakharova.

CLICK HERE to apply!  The deadline is Friday, March 13, 2009.  Late submissions will not be accepted.