February 2002 • Volume 8 • Number 2 |
It seems a simple concept: If you're trying to promote the specialty of family practice to medical students, bring them together with practicing FPs who love what they do.
But making that happen isn't always so easy. In fact, it can be downright hairy. Not to mention costly.
That's one reason why AAFP created the Chapter Student Interest Matching Grants in the late 1990s.
Administered by the Division of Medical Education under the direction of the Commission on Resident and Student Issues, the grant program supports constituent chapters' efforts to collaborate with family medicine interest groups, departments of family medicine, family practice residencies and others to develop innovative programming to further medical student interest in the specialty.
Two recipients of the 2001 grants -- the Maryland AFP and the New Hampshire AFP -- came up with ambitious ways of doing just that.
MARYLAND AFP
The Maryland AFP received $5,000 to help fund a comprehensive initiative targeting third-year medical students. Partners include the medical schools at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, both in Baltimore. Each school's family medicine interest group has been heavily involved in the project. MAFP's initiative is expected to reach more than 350 students through participation in community service projects and preceptorship programs, as well as via presentations by family medicine leaders, including AAFP Board Chair Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D., of Madison, Wis., who gave an introduction to the specialty in September.
"My experience with the students and residents was very positive," said Roberts, who spoke to gatherings at Johns Hopkins, the University of Maryland and Franklin Square Hospital Center, Baltimore. "We had probably in each instance 20 to 30 folks. The topic was well-received, and there were lots of good questions."
Other speakers have included Kevin Ferentz, M.D., director of the University of Maryland Family Practice Residency, and Sally Rixey, M.D., Franklin Square's family medicine residency director. FPs practicing in rural and urban settings are featured, and students are invited to participate in summer externships and community-based tobacco education programs.
NEW HAMPSHIRE AFP
The New Hampshire chapter, working with Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, also received $5,000 toward its student interest programming. Mimi Emerson, M.S., associate project director with the Family Medicine Predoctoral Education Division at the medical school, characterized the initiative as a two-pronged approach "to promote both the community-medical school collaboration and also to promote family medicine among students."
"It's hard to know whether you're 'supporting' or 'promoting,'" Emerson added. "Because really, the students who are already fired up -- this just gives them more to fall back on. But I also think it tweaks the interest of some along the way."
Dartmouth had already begun assessing factors that influence students' career choices, thanks to a Health Resources and Services Administration Family Medicine Predoctoral Education Grant. Interactive panel discussions in September brought FPs, family medicine residents and medical students together in a no-holds-barred "infofest" that allowed students to get a bird's-eye view of the specialty from those who know it best.
"Overall, the students came out of that auditorium very jazzed up -- a lot of conversations both with faculty and with each other," said Emerson. "You could tell that that kind of opportunity helps to make the whole picture more real for them."
The AAFP grant allows expansion of this project, pairing students with practicing FPs for a series of hands-on clinical workstations highlighting patient care skills often used in family practice. New Hampshire Family Physician of the Year Douglas Keene, M.D., of Sullivan will deliver the keynote at this April 4 event.
FP Report is published by the
AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2002 by
American Academy of Family Physicians.