Past preceptorship students who were placed in rural sites have reported enjoyable long-lasting experience, a great opportunity to discover the specialty, and an overall increased interest in pursuing family medicine.

Please note: Students interested in applying to the rural track through our Preceptorship Program are asked to rank their site preferences. If you are accepted to the rural track, CAFP will make every effort to accommodate your preferences, but cannot guarantee you will receive your top choices.  If you have any questions about the sites or would like to get more information on past students' experience, please contact Cody Mitcheltree.

ALTURAS
Edward Richert, MD
Modoc Medical Center
About the preceptor: Dr. Richert is Chief of Medical Staff at Modoc Medical Center and exemplifies a rural medicine physician.
About the site: Located in the northeastern tip of California, Alturas has a population of 3,000.  The site is nearly 100 miles from the closest referral center.  The practice is full-scope with obstetrics (about five deliveries per month), minor surgeries, simple orthopedics, inpatient, and skilled nursing care.  Specialists in radiology, cardiology, and orthopedics make weekly visits for consultation.
About the patients: Dr. Richert sees a substantial number of indigent patients, and 50 percent have Medi-Cal.

EUREKA
Hal Grotke, MD; Clifford Tse, MD; Courtney Ladika, MD
Redwood Family Practice
About the preceptor: Dr. Grotke attended medical school at the University of California, San Diego and residency at Kaiser Permanente in Woodland Hills.  He was recently awarded a fellowship degree by AAFP and currently serves as president of the Humboldt-Del Norte County Medical Society.
About the site:  Redwood Family Practice is a federally recognized Rural Health Clinic in the city of Eureka, which is on the coast 100 miles west of Redding and 300 miles north of San Francisco.  Eureka and the adjacent city of Arcata have a combined population of about 40,000 with an active arts culture.  We are surrounded by pristine beaches and vast forests of coastal redwoods.  In our clinic we serve people of all ages and all socio-economic backgrounds.  You can learn more about our clinic at http://www.redmed.com/.  For more information on our area, visit http://www.redwoods.info/.

FOWLER
Alex Sherriffs, MD and Joan Rubinstein, MD
Fowler Community Health Center
(Co-sponsored with UCSF-Fresno Medical Education Program)
A Philip L. Huffman/UCSF-Fresno Foundation Preceptorship
About the preceptor: Drs. Rubinstein and Sherriffs are a family physician couple and both are Clinical Professors in family and community medicine at UCSF-Fresno's Medical Education Program.  They are known as "the town doctors", and many students over the years have enjoyed experiencing firsthand the lifestyle of a dual-physician family in a rural community with a significant clinical teaching program nearby.  Both doctors hold leadership roles in the teaching program and are committed to their community, patients, and furthering the learning experiences of medical students and residents who choose the Central San Joaquin Valley for their clinical training.
About the site: Located 20 minutes from Fresno, Fowler has a population of nearly 4,000.  The center is affiliated with Adventist Health systems and involves full scope family medicine, including outpatient and inpatient care, pediatrics, and geriatrics.  Procedures performed include flexible sigmoidoscopies, colposcopies, endometrial biopsies, vasectomies, and multiple minor surgical procedures.  Precepting students will have the opportunity to observe complete histories and physicals and participate in family conferences for cognitively impaired elders.  Local CAFP chapter leaders will be available to mentor the student during the experience.  In addition to the wonderful clinical experiences offered in Fowler, there are also numerous recreational areas and parks nearby, including Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite National parks.  Outdoor activities include hiking, mountain biking, and boating.
About the patients: The community is agriculturally based, and the practice sees patients of all walks of life with diverse backgrounds including Hispanic, Armenian, Japanese, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and African American.  Medical Spanish is helpful, but not required.  Patients are seen in the hospital and in nursing homes.

KING CITY
Bruce Greenberg, MD
Other preceptors: Michael Robinson, MD; Christina Zaro, MD
Mee Memorial Hospital and Clinics
About the preceptor: Dr. Greenberg received his undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of California Berkeley, received his medical degree from the University of California (UC), Davis School of Medicine, and completed his residency program at Natividad Medical Center Family Practice Residency Program in Salinas, CA.  He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in a working class family and was the first in his family to attend college.  During Dr. Greenberg's medical school years, "the [UC Davis] campus was extremely rural, and it really opened my eyes to how nice a rural setting could be."  When he was doing his clinical rotations, he decided that there was not any one thing he enjoyed doing all of the time.  He enjoyed treating adults and children, delivering babies, doing surgery, and working in the emergency room.  After completing his residency, Dr. Greenberg joined a group practice in King City, which was then known as the Southern Monterey County Medical Group and later became Mee Memorial Hospital and Clinics.  "Rural medicine allowed me to use all of the skills I had learned in residency, and I felt that it was challenging to be able to provide such a wide range of care to my patients."
About the site: Located in the Salinas Valley about 45 miles south of Salinas and nearly 100 miles south of San Jose, the practice is a part of the Mee King City Clinic, which is adjacent to Mee Memorial Hospital and the Mee Greenfield Clinic, located in the town of Greenfield, 12 miles north of King City.  In addition to family physicians, the site has ob-gyns, pediatricians, an internist, a general surgeon, an orthopedist, and several other specialists who visit the facility on a part-time basis.  The precepting students have an opportunity to visit any of the nearby sites, but the majority of their time will be spent at the King City Clinic.  The students may participate with their preceptor in seeing patients at Mee Memorial Hospital.
About the patients: The patient population spans all ages and all socio-economic groups, although a large number of our patients are low income.  More than half of our patients are Latino, with a large number of them Spanish-speaking only, while many are bilingual in English and Spanish.

LAKEPORT
Peter Stanley, MD
Lakeport Medical Group
About the preceptor:  Dr. Stanley is a born and raised Californian.  He went to medical school in Virginia, and residency at the University of Massachusetts.  He and his partner have been in practice for more than 25 years in the small town of Lakeport.
About the site:  The city, a town of 5,000 people, is located on Clear Lake, a large recreational lake in Northern California.  Deer and wild turkeys occasionally wander into town (Dr. Stanley is still hoping someday to catch a glimpse of a mountain lion - at a distance).  Lakeport Medical Group is a two-physician Family Practice providing all aspects of general medicine including adult medicine, pediatrics, counseling, office surgeries (derms, vasectomies, circumcisions) and orthopedics.  Dr. Stanley sees his own patients in the hospital, has ICU privileges and sees newborns in the Birth Center.  He no longer does Obstetrics, but the student will have the opportunity to work with the local obstetrician.  The student's experience will involve office work with Dr. Stanley and his partner, as well as spending time with other primary care doctors and specialists in the community.  There will be an opportunity to attend surgeries, births (and C sections), visit patients in nursing homes, do home visits and hopefully "get attached" to one or a few special patients.  A desire to learn how to wakeboard or water ski is a plus.
About the patients:  The patients are a representative spectrum of the town - all ages, all payer types (private insurance, Medicare, Medi-Cal, and self-pay), 80 percent white, 15 percent Hispanic, 5 percent other.  It is a generally working-class community.

NAPA
Robert Moore, MD; Colleen Townsend, MD; Douglas Wilson, MD; Jennifer Wilson, MD; Zita Latona, MD; Elizabeth Shaw, MD
Community Health Clinic Ole
About the preceptor: Dr. Moore received his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University.  He completed his residency training at Ventura County Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program and now serves as his clinic's Medical Director.  Dr. Townsend, an Assistant Medical Director at Clinic Ole, received her medical degree from the University of Minnesota, School of Medicine and completed her residency training at the University of California San Francisco Family and Community Medicine Residency Program.  Dr. Wilson received his medical degree from the Loma Linda University and completed his residency training at Ventura County Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program.  He is board certified in family, hospice, and palliative care medicine.  The family physicians enjoy training students in the health professions.
About the site: Located in a world-known wine county approximately one hour north of San Francisco, this bilingual English/Spanish site is the medical and dental home for Napa County's underserved, providing high-quality, affordable, compassionate, and culturally sensitive primary health care.  Considered as a Federally Qualified Health Center and the only non-profit health center in Napa County, Clinic Ole is committed to improving health outcomes and building a healthier community.  The practice is a full-scope and includes obstetrics, orthopedics, and surgery.
About the patients: The population includes 50 percent Spanish-speaking patients and caters to a large migrant labor population.  Twenty percent are covered by Medi-Cal managed care, and many patients are seen in the hospital and a nursing home.

"During my preceptorship at Clinic Ole in Napa I was given the opportunity to participate in patient care alongside many physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners.  Exposure to these care providers, each with their own strengths and strategies, allowed me to better evaluate my own clinical strengths and weaknesses and identify the type of doctor I hope to become.  Every provider that I worked with showed an interest in my educational development, taking extra effort to teach, explain, and evaluate whenever they could.  I am very grateful for the providers at Clinic Ole, and I considered the time I spent with them to be the most formative in my medical education so far.  Among the most unique experiences during the preceptorship were Tuesday nights when we worked late to provide health care at the Napa homeless shelter.  Continuity of care with patients is so rare at this phase in my medical education; I don't think I had ever seen the same patient twice until attending the South Shelter clinics.  Since we had the same patients every week at the shelter, I enjoyed building a long-term rapport." Cody Suard, 2009 Preceptorship participant.

UKIAH
Robert Werra, MD
Other preceptors: Gary DeCrona, MD; Steve Wirth, MD; Robert Rushton, MD; Lynn Coen, MD
Ukiah Valley Primary Care - Rural Health Center
About the preceptor: Dr. Werra underwent standard medical school and family practice training.  "I chose family medicine because I wanted to be a "people doctor", not a disease or systems doctor.  I wanted to be a cradle-to-grave doctor caring for all the ordinary health and health education needs of our patients along the way.  I chose rural to escape the hubbub of the city and the affectations of the suburbs.  I chose this northern California valley to enjoy its beautiful trees and green-to-golden hills.  I chose it to peacefully raise and educate our children and spend our lives among likeminded friends."
About the site: Located in a rural community in Ukiah where the wine country meets the redwoods, this practice sees a full range of patients from newborns to women to seniors.  It's located only two hours from San Francisco and is composed of four separate family practice offices, giving the precepting student four one-week experiences of the diversity yet similarity from the early years to the late years of a career in family medicine.  The student gets an opportunity to explore various practice settings from a small solo office to a large multispecialty group, from a nursing home to ICU.  The student will also have a chance to attend a weekly clinical conference and listen in on the cases presented by the physicians.
About the patients: The patient population is 65 percent Caucasian, 30 percent Hispanic, and five percent Native American.  The site is bilingual in English and Spanish.