For the most up-to-date list go to the WAFP's website at:
http://www.wafp.org/s_preceptors.asp

The Summer Externship Program is designed to offer medical students who have finished their first year of school the opportunity to experience the specialty of family medicine early in their medical education. Each summer, students from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and the Medical College of Wisconsin participate in an eight-week externship as a way of gaining career-related experience and knowledge.

If you have questions regarding the application process, contact Suzanne McGuire at suzanne.mcguire@fammed.wisc.edu or by phone at 263-3115.

Summer Externship: Goals and Responsibilities

Information from the WAFP:

To: Students interested in WAFP Summer Externship

Thank you for your interest in participating in the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians' (WAFP) Summer Externship Program. Begun in 1969, this Program has provided the opportunity for more than 1300 students to experience family medicine practice. The Program matches students with practicing family physicians in rural and urban locations for a period of eight weeks during the summer after the M-1 year. The Program defines "rural" as a community with 13,000 or less population, a hospital size of fewer than 125 beds, and more than 30 miles from a population center greater than 100,000. In consideration of the distance, the stipend for the rural experience is $2500. The urban experience stipend is $2100. Stipends are received in two equal installments. Stipends may or may not be taxable income. (See IRS publication 520, Scholarship and Fellowships, for information about this type of income.) Housing is provided at rural sites.

The goals of the Summer Externship Program are:

• To provide the student an early one-on-one experience with a family physician to gain a better appreciation and understanding of primary care medicine, especially family medicine.
• To provide an opportunity to better understand what it is like to be a doctor and keep an appropriate perspective through subsequent medical training.
• To provide family physician preceptors the opportunity to teach and promote family medicine as an attractive arena in which to practice medicine.

If your application is accepted and you match with a physician preceptor, it is your responsibility to:

• Commit to the completion of the Program (eight weeks).
• Conduct yourself in a professional manner and be accountable to your chosen preceptor practice.
• Not expect yourself to behave as a physician; you are a learner! The members of the Wisconsin Academy want you to enjoy your experience.
• Submit a written Summer Externship evaluation form upon completion of your experience (to receive the second installment of your stipend!).

Again, thank you for your interest in the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians' Summer Externship Program. We wish you every success.