July 31, 2024
Through June and July 2024, 11 students from North Carolina medical schools completed their NCAFP summer programs in western North Carolina, Concord, and other places around the state. These programs paired the medical students directly with family physicians practicing in primarily rural and underserved areas, so that students could learn about Family Medicine in those practice settings and larger communities. “Participants get to spend time learning from faculty and practicing physicians, learning with Family Medicine residents, and shadowing in various clinic settings,” says NCAFP Manager of Workforce Initiatives Perry Price. “They are fully immersed into life as a family physician and gain great insight into a rewarding career path!”
According to feedback that the students shared through a post-program survey, their participation helped them take steps towards becoming family physicians themselves. All 11 students reported that they’re now more likely to consider Family Medicine as their future specialty of choice. “This gave me a view of what Family Medicine is really like day to day,” said one student. “I can see myself being a family physician.”
Their programs included meeting with patients, learning from Family Medicine residents, and even living with local family physicians during their stay. If they had expected any of the medical care to be monotonous or predictable, they received a pleasant surprise: “I saw patients across the age spectrum,” said another student from the western program. “I think the youngest I saw was about seven years old, and the oldest patients were in their 80s.”
“Patients ranged in age from babies to elderly patients,” said one student. “Since we were at a federally qualified health center, most of them did not have insurance or had either Medicaid or Medicare. About one-third of our patients spoke Spanish.”
The students also found plenty of differences in the patients’ medical needs. “I loved doing true full spectrum care: all kinds of acute and chronic concerns like diabetes, hypertension, OUD, obesity, and other needs,” said one student. “Overall, I just enjoyed the variety of conditions and needs that people came in for. It is a nice change of pace from cities and suburban areas.”
While spending days at a time with their preceptors, these students learned how family physicians can work at their best alongside all those patients and all their needs. “Everybody at the clinic was so extremely kind and helpful,” said one student from the Concord program. “I enjoyed the atmosphere and the pace of the day.”
The learning they received came right from their preceptors: “Dr. Erika Steinbacher was really kind and personable during my stay,” said one student, “she made me feel comfortable and welcome.”
“The way that Dr. Shawn Hamm really listened to his patients and let them be active participants in their health care really inspired me to do the same when I practice one day,” said another student.
Seeing family physicians at work proved that Family Medicine has what they want, said many of the participants: “Watching three or four generations of patients be treated by one physician is amazing and exactly what I want to do,” said one student. “Seeing that same provider provide psychiatric support, childhood vaccines, and suboxone is quite frankly amazing.”
The good of continued, generational care, combined with the variety of patients and care needs, clicked perfectly for one student from the Concord program, who said, “At times, I had the fear that I may get bored over the course of my career if I become a family physician. But this program has most definitely changed my mind on that note.”
Preparing talented medical students who want to serve the underserved toward Family Medicine in North Carolina is the whole reason we organize these summer programs. One student said, “I am super thankful that the NCAFP made it possible for me to participate. Initiatives like this show that the NCAFP is dedicated to exposing more people to Family Medicine, so that we can have more primary care doctors who bring healing to our communities.”
In turn, we are very thankful for the medical students and physician preceptors who helped us organize these crucial programs each summer! A special thank you to the MAHEC – Boone Family Medicine Residency and to the Cabarrus Family Medicine Residency for their partnership with the Foundation programs this summer.