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University of Washington Medical Student Internships Highlight Challenges in Primary Care

Second-year medical students attending the University of Washington this summer participated in a one month-long program designed to prepare them for practice in rural and underserved areas, the New York Times reports. The university trains medical students from Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming—states which do not have their own medical schools—through cooperative agreements. Introduced more than 20 years ago, the elective internship is one of several initiatives that aim to encourage students to return to their home states to practice. A record 117 of the 216 second-year medical students participated in the program this summer. Students interned in several primary care settings, with one student shadowing a pediatrician and another working with a family practitioner in remote Kodiak, Ala. Although the internship helped some students discover that a career in family practice was not for them, with many citing the harried nature of patient interactions and lack of reimbursement as reasons they were shying away from the field, others report that the internships have renewed their commitment to family practice (Sack, New York Times, 9/8/09 [subscription required]).

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