What you will do:

This is a combined inpatient and outpatient experience during which you will be under the supervision of a board-certified family medicine physician. The preceptor holds a staff appointment at a hospital within the WakeMed Health System. Having enjoyed teaching through the years, this doctor has continued to make education a priority as a preceptor for nurse practitioner, physician assistant, and other health professions students.

The doctor is known for being a gentle and compassionate physician who goes the extra mile for patients in the practice. Rotators will see how a physician can form strong relationships with patients and how these relationships can lead to increased patient satisfaction and outcomes.

In the outpatient clinic, you will encounter a range of patients, from infants to the elderly, presenting with acute complaints, chronic conditions, or for well visits and health maintenance. As you evaluate these patients, you will be asked to form your own diagnoses and assessments and present them to the physician. The physician will work closely with you to help you refine your history-taking, presentation skills, and documentation.

The doctor sees patients having either traditional insurance or via a direct primary care model. The latter is a relatively new practice model where patients pay a membership fee to the physician for a certain set of primary care services. This model is becoming more popular among physicians as it allows patients to have longer visits, increased access to their physician, and more personalized care. For more information about direct primary care, please visit:

Direct Primary Care | AAFP

The inpatient component of this clinical experience will take place at nursing homes where the physician serves as Medical Director. Patients that reside in nursing homes have complex medical and social conditions making the care of these patients challenging. Research shows that, among graduating residents, over 20% feel unprepared to care for nursing home patients. As a result, the Institute of Medicine has urged residency programs to adopt nursing homes as sites for medical training. Despite this recommendation, only a small percentage of residency programs offer trainees the opportunity to engage in nursing home care. Therefore, your visits to the nursing home with the preceptor will be a chance for you to build the skills and knowledge needed to care for this patient population. The following articles, although a bit older, provide a great overview of important concepts in nursing home care:

Nursing Home Care: Part I: Principles and Pitfalls of Practice

Nursing Home Care: Part II. Clinical Aspects

This preceptor believes that students should be actively involved with patients. During your experience, you will learn the following U.S. medical practices under the preceptor’s supervision:

• Taking patient histories under supervision.

• Performing physical exams under the physician's supervision.

• Presenting patients.

• Writing or entering notes in the EMR (NextGen)

• Have opportunities to research the literature to answer clinical questions at the point of care.

• Being involved in patient education.

• Delivering presentations on medical topics.

• Spending time with other healthcare professionals to understand their roles and responsibilities.