Sponsored by the AHEC Program, this program is open to M1s and M2s during their summer break. All Rural Loan Scholarship and Community Match students are required to do one Rural Preceptorship as part of their curriculum.

Program Goals

To help bridge the gap between basic sciences and clinical medicine, by providing a clinical training experience in primary care each summer for students who have just completed the first or second year of medical school.

To give the student special insight into the "medical way of life" of a primary care physician in private practice.

To attempt to affect the maldistribution and shortage of primary care physicians in Arkansas, by providing positive training experiences in diverse locations throughout the state. Preceptorships will, generally, be located in rural communities with a population of less than 15,000. Some larger communities in the Delta are exceptions to this rule.

To assist the student in grasping more fully the need to understand each patient in relationship to his family, his job, and his total environment.

To depict for the student, by precept and example, the physician's place in society; social as well as civic responsibilities and obligations.

To provide a relaxed setting away from the formal curriculum during which time the student may develop some ideas concerning the values and goals of medical practice and his/her own future.

To demonstrate the community need for primary care physicians, a need that can and is being met daily in a competent and confident manner consistent with the best traditions of quality medical care in a modern setting.