The Primary Care Rural Preceptorship Program is a hands-on primary care experience designed to expose medical students to the professional, business and social aspects of practicing primary medicine in rural and/or medically underserved areas of Louisiana. It is sponsored by the AHEC Program Offices at LSU Health Shreveport. It is offered to medical students the summer after the first year of medical school.

Participants: The Primary Care Rural Preceptorship Program is offered during summer months to students who have successfully completed their first and/or second year of medical school. Third year students may participate during their vacation block and fourth year students at LSU Health Shreveport may schedule the elective throughout their academic year. This includes elective studies and the community selective. Preceptors for the program are residency-trained, board certified or eligible, primary care providers. They are eligible for faculty appointments at the LSU Health Shreveport.

All LSU Health Shreveport MSIV’s are required to take 4 weeks of elective/selective rotations at off-site facilities. The AHEC Program Office at LSUHS coordinates these rotations in conjunction with the Louisiana AHEC Centers who place these students with volunteer preceptors throughout the state of Louisiana. For Application information contact the AHEC office at LSU Health Shreveport.

All LSU Health Shreveport first year medical students are required to participate in an immersion month of primary care rotations, coordinated by the Program Office and Central Louisiana AHEC. Rotations are scheduled at primary care physicians’ offices, public health clinics or local community social services sites within one hour travel time of the university. The freshman class receives more than 1,300 hours of immersion training as a result of this program.

AHEC Scholars is a program for health professions students interested in supplementing their education by gaining additional knowledge and experience in rural and/or under-served urban settings. This is a longitudinal program with interdisciplinary curricula to implement a defined set of clinical, didactic, and community-based activities. All experiential or clinical training will be conducted in rural and/or under-served urban settings.

Eligibility Criteria:
Students should have a current interest in rural or under-served healthcare and be currently enrolled in a health professions degree or certificate program and be two years from program or degree completion. This includes but is not limited to students in medical, dental, pharmacy, nurse practitioner, nursing, physician assistant, social work, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and public/population health programs.