August 3, 2023
For two weeks in July, six medical students joined the NCAFP Summer Immersion program to learn about Family Medicine directly from family physicians. Alexandra Sobisch, David Lehrburger, Emma Fullet, Zoe Greene, Sara Jacob, and Ryan Taylor began their program with one week of instruction at the Cabarrus Family Medicine Residency, and then they joined preceptor physicians to spend the second week shadowing them.
Fullet summarized what this program does for medical students: “In our first year of medical school, we are always learning the science of medicine: how the body’s systems work and what can go wrong to cause pathologies,” she says. “This program showed us the art of medicine.”
Their hands-on exposure to our specialty included popular highlights at the Cabarrus Family Medicine Residency, like the rural medicine workshop with Dr. Dawn Caviness, the EKG reading seminar with Dr. Bobbie Scott, and the procedure workshop which Dr. Caviness and Dr. Scott taught together with Dr. Susan Andersen. “It was a great mixture of clinical experiences as well as group activities,” Lehrburger says. “It felt like summer camp for medical students.”
These instructional workshops complemented the clinical experiences the students valued in their second week. Seeing the physicians interact with patients taught the students volumes, they say. “We got to work alongside several physicians to see how they integrate their scientific knowledge to have conversations with patients about their health,” Fullet says. “I really enjoyed the experience. I took things away from these doctors that I want to incorporate into my own practice one day.”
Ryan Taylor also found a great mentor in Dr. Joshua Carpenter. “It was clear that Dr. Carpenter’s patients trust him with their health and were comfortable with him,” Taylor says. “As a future physician, this is something I want to have with my patients.”
And the students’ mentors weren’t just aspirational — they were also honest and inviting about the lives they lead as family physicians. Sara Jacob says, “It was nice being able to see the full day-to-day routine of a family doctor: how and when they chart, what their encounters look like in the morning versus the afternoon, and how they bounce back and handle tough scenarios.”
They all reported in their post-program survey that they are now more likely to consider Family Medicine after medical school. For one thing, they enjoyed the full range of sub-specialties and practice models they experienced. “I loved seeing the variety of specialties and broad scope of practice that’s available within Family Medicine,” Lehrburger says. “I know that I will be able to find my niche here, where other specialties would be more limiting.”
Taylor, who shadowed Dr. Carpenter at a direct primary care clinic, enjoyed his “front-row seat” to this value-based model. “It was valuable to experience direct primary care up close and personal,” he says, “since it is on the rise in Family Medicine.”
But (again) the real-life and unvarnished input from their physician mentors also helped nudge these students toward the specialty. “Every physician I got to work with was incredibly open and honest about their path through medicine and why they chose Family Medicine,” says Alexandra Sobisch. “They all offered us support as we continue to navigate medical school and our future careers in medicine. It made the experience that much better for me.”
The North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians, Inc. (NCAFP) is a nonprofit professional association headquartered in Raleigh which represents over 4,300 family physicians, family medicine residents, and medical students across the state. It is the largest medical specialty association in North Carolina and is a constituent chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians, based in Leadwood, KS.