February 18, 2025
Like most things in our world, family medicine is evolving rapidly. The expectations of family physicians are also evolving – both from your patients and also from yourselves.
All these changes can be challenging to navigate, whether they are workforce challenges, AI integration, or shifts in care models. But one way to ensure that you’re remaining in the know is to welcome medical students into your practice.
The best way for a potential family physician to understand the intricacies and wonders of family medicine is to spend time in real-world practice settings, and to build relationships with practicing family physicians. Yet, having medical students also benefits you. Medical students bring new perspectives and ask questions that force self-reflection and self-evaluation, while also bringing fresh energy into any clinic. We asked four of our own Summer Preceptors to share a bit about their experiences and why they decided to get involved.
“Wake Forest University medical student Jaelen King already planned to spend a summer with me researching the impact of my Lifestyle Medicine at Home program. Thanks to the NCAFP summer externship program, we took it a step further to make sure Jaelen could see firsthand that family physicians like me provide care in the clinic, in the hospital, at the home, and in groups. For a variety of reasons, I feel that medical students may wrongly assume that primary care is straightforward. It’s easy to be distracted by all of the specialties and technology. I think our time together helped Jaelen recognize that Family Medicine is the specialty for building relationships with patients. I found our time together to be rewarding, because Jaelen was engaged at a level that made me feel that what I taught him could impact his practice for decades to come.”
“Precepting is such a joy. There is hard work, planning, and patience that goes into it, AND there is so much good that comes from time given to those in training. Simply, it is the idea of giving back to the community in which you were able to train. I had the pleasure of precepting first-year medical student Zoe Green from the Brody School of Medicine in the summer of 2023. She stayed in my home while we spent two weeks together in my clinic. She came to the experience ready to learn, and she even taught me about her recent experience with lifestyle medicine and how beneficial it is to incorporate that knowledge into my patient care. My patients loved having her, and I was re-energized in teaching her for those two weeks. We were all there once, and those in training deserve enthusiastic preceptors, to continue to demonstrate the richness of Family Medicine.”
“I decided to serve as a summer preceptor for the NCAFP summer program to share my experience as a full-time family physician with a medical student. I love the setup of this program and that it allowed me to share my work life as well as my home with a medical student. My student, Alex, was able to have a glimpse into my work as a family physician and the importance of relationships and family medicine. We develop such close meaningful relationships with our patients, their families, and nearby specialty physicians. We have the opportunity as family physicians to see patients when they are doing well and celebrate with them. We also have the opportunity to heal and advocate for patients when they are not doing well.
“One of my favorite parts of this program was the ability to show my student what my life is like outside of the office. Since he spent an entire week with me, he was able to see the work-life balance that I have as an outpatient family physician. I am able to exercise, travel, and engage in my favorite hobbies (including dog training and pottery) due to the balance I have in both my work and home life. I absolutely love being a family physician, and it was an incredible experience to be able to share this with a medical student early on in their experience. I look forward to having another student join me again this coming summer.”
“This past summer, I was offered the opportunity to be a host and preceptor for an NCAFP program, and I immediately jumped at the chance to ‘pay it forward’ after all the support I received from the NCAFP during my med school years. During the week, the incredibly bright and eager student I was matched with shadowed my full-spectrum Family Medicine clinic in rural western NC and spent time with my family after hours to see what being a ‘real-life’ family doc is like.
“This experience really helped remind me of some of the reasons that I love Family Medicine so much. I think it’s easy to get bogged down in the daily minutiae of clinic. Hosting a student in such an immersive week helped me see the specialty through their fresh eyes. It gave me the opportunity to slow down and appreciate the joys of Family Medicine, and I highly recommend the experience.”
There are endless ways to engage with medical students, as well as endless need. We are in the midst of a preceptor shortage in North Carolina, and the need for family physicians in our state only continues to grow. The work of the NCAFP Foundation and its mission to support the advancement of Family Medicine starts with fostering student interest in the specialty. Can you find a way to precept a medical student and support their crucial future in Family Medicine?
This article appears in the winter issue of The North Carolina Family Physician, the NCAFP's quarterly magazine.