The purpose of the Office of Regional Primary Care Education (ORPCE) is to facilitate and enhance high quality, community-based education for health science students from all North Carolina academic centers. Funding for these efforts is provided through the North Carolina AHEC Rural Primary Care Initiative.
ORPCE staffs serve as liaison between community practices
and health science schools. We support preceptors and assist students and
schools in the following ways:
Health Science Schools
The ORPCE works with university course directors
and clinical coordinators to identify teaching sites and coordinate clinical
community-based placements within the five-county (Edgecombe, Halifax,
Nash, Northampton, and Wilson counties) region of Area L AHEC. The ORPCE
attempts to match the requirements of the course and the interests of the
students with the appropriate teaching sites.
Preceptors
The ORPCE supports approximately 100 primary care
community preceptors through preceptor development activities, facilitating
the faculty appointment process, computer technical assistance support,
and preceptor payments when available. The office also serves as a preceptor
advocate in local and statewide discussions.
Students
Students are supported through site identification,
information technology assistance, local educational seminars and workshops,
and student housing. Area L AHEC maintains 10 apartments in Roanoke Rapids,
Rocky Mount, Tarboro, and Wilson to serve the needs of students rotating
within the region.
Clinical Experiences Available in the Area L AHEC Region:
Area L AHEC offers a wide variety of rural clinical
training sites for family medicine, internal medicine, pediatric, obstetrics/gynecology,
nurse practitioner, physician assistant, and pharmD students. Interdisciplinary
training experiences are also available where students from a variety of
health disciplines can integrate experiential and theoretical learning
in rural interdisciplinary health care.
For further information or assistance please contact
Debra P. Futrell, PharmD,
Director -- Pharmacy Education & Interim Director -- Interdisciplinary
Student Training/ORPCE, (252) 972-6958.
Please send all comments or suggestions to the Webmaster.
last updated 5/1/03