The NCAFP offers a variety of programs and opportunities to medical students. A few of these are clinical experience opportunities available to 1st-year medical students at all five North Carolina schools, plus 3rd-year students at Duke. These take place the summer between your first and second year of medical school. You do not have to be convinced that the specialty of Family Medicine is your career path; you must merely have an interest in learning more about this exciting specialty.
A primary goal of both programs is to provide students with experiences away from the academic setting. Therefore, these programs offer a travel stipend to help off-set commuting and other related costs you may incur due to your placement site.
There are three program opportunties available this year offering insight and clinical experience in Family Medicine. Application deadline is February 28th, 2025 at 11:59pm!
This year we are excited to offer our immersion experience in two locations: Western, North Carolina and Concord, North Carolina! These programs will accommodate up to ten students.
The first week will take place with your cohort of other NC medical students at a family medicine residency program. Students will engage in activities such as patient visits, rural health and family medicine discussions, wilderness medicine sessions, hands on skills workshops, visits to a rural hospital, health department, FQHC, or other safety-net clinics, and more. In the 2nd week, you will be matched with a practicing family physician to spend a week in the life of a family doctor working in rural or other underserved areas.
MAHEC Boone : June 2-13
Atrium Cabarrus : July 14- 25
What do students say?
This four-week experience is designed to offer students a chance to work with a practicing community family physician to see first-hand the daily life and activity of a full time, community-based family doctor. Depending on the physician paired with, in addition to outpatient care, experiences may include: hospital rounds, nursing home or group home care visits, hospice care, free clinic work or house calls. Activities will vary according to the physician and community. Every effort is made to pair students in the geographic area of choice, however not all specific locations can be accommodated so flexibility is requested. What do students say?
"My 4-week externship experience with Dr. Andrew Nance in Kannapolis, NC cemented my desire to become a family medicine physician. I got to actively participate in the care Dr. Nance was providing in both his clinical office as well as in at-home visits with patients, and that hands-on exposure gave me hope for what I could do as a family provider in the future. Further, I also worked with Dr. Nance on a research project in conjunction with my school's 9 week summer research program, and the NCAFP was incredibly flexible with me so that I felt like I was still able to get a solid amount of clinical exposure while completing all of my research requirements for school. I would recommend the externship experience to any student interested in Family Medicine!" - Jaelen King, Wake Forest School of Medicine
Interested medical students enrolled in any North Carolina medical school may submit an application. Students interested in multiple programs are permitted to apply for more than one. Participation offers are typically extended in March with all program participants officially confirmed by early April.
Once selected, the process of obtaining/matching family medicine preceptors will begin. Students may choose to locate a family physician preceptor by utilizing their existing contacts. However, this is not required, and all efforts will be made to locate a preceptor on the student's behalf with preferred experiences, interests, and geography in mind. A focus of this program is to expose students to physicians outside of the university community so preference is given to family physicians whose clinical time is community-based.
During the 4-week externship and the 1-week time with a family physician in the rural health program, daily activities are directed by the physician preceptor.
If you have questions regarding the Foundation's Summer Programs, please contact Perry Price at the NCAFP offices at perry@ncafp.com or via telephone at 919-980-5357.