Philanthropy Profile
The Mentor’s Role in Training Health Professionals:
The Family Medicine Interest and Scholars Program
Primary care is a central element of the transfor-
mation of the health care system as envisioned in the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.
Simply put, communities with better access to pri-
mary care have better outcomes at a lower cost [1, 2].
But how do we ensure that there will be an adequate
supply of primary care physicians, or that the people
who train to work in primary care stay in primary care?
At the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
(BCBSNC) Foundation, we recognize that supporting
visionary leaders and fostering leadership succession
are critical to success in all of our work. In the case of
primary care education, this means exposing medical
students who are considering a career in primary care
to exceptional leaders in that field.
Four years ago, the North Carolina Academy of
Family Physicians Foundation established the Family
Medicine Interest and Scholars Program, in which
mentors give medical students early clinical expo-
sure to primary care and encourage their interest in
this career path. The program’s goal is to increase the
number of North Carolina–trained medical students
who match into in-state family medicine residency
programs and begin practicing in North Carolina.
Supported by a grant from the BCBSNC Foundation,
the program has for the past 3 years supported medi-
cal students at 4 medical schools—the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, Wake
Forest University, and East Carolina University; the
program has also served Campbell University School
of Osteopathic Medicine since the school opened in
August 2013. To date, the program has provided men-
toring and leadership opportunities for more than
50 medical students. It has also bolstered student
membership in the North Carolina Academy of Family
Physicians (increasing it by almost 500%) and has
provided financial support for each campus’s Family
Medicine Interest Group. As a result, more students
who enter medical school with an interest in family
medicine have the support to maintain that commit-
ment throughout their years on campus.
The signature component of the Family Medicine
Interest and Scholars Program is a formal mentorship
84 NCMJ vol. 75, no. 1
ncmedicaljournal.com
that pairs first-year students interested in family med-
icine with a preceptor, beginning in the summer after
the student’s first year of medical school. This men-
toring relationship is developed over an initial 4-week
period of clinical immersion and then continues for
3 consecutive years, during which time the student-
mentor dyads meet at conferences, continue to share
clinical experiences, and check in regularly via e-mail
and by phone. During this time, the preceptors offer
guidance, introduce students to the team-based model
of care that often characterizes family medicine, and
provide opportunities for students to strengthen their
clinical skills. The relationship fast-tracks primary
care training and also provides students with insight
figure 1.
Charles Rhodes, MD, of Cabarrus Family Medicine (right) served as
a preceptor to Patrick Williams (left) in the first year of the Family
Medicine Interest and Scholars Program. “Family medicine chooses
you; it’s just something that fits into your personality. I’m on fire
for it and have been since I started medical school,” said Rhodes.
Williams matched with a residency program affiliated with the
community-based practice site where he interned as a participant in
the Family Medicine Interest and Scholars Program. Photo reprinted
with permission from the BCBSNC Foundation.
Electronically published January 21, 2014.
Address correspondence to Ms. Katie Eyes, Blue Cross and Blue
Shield of North Carolina Foundation, PO Box 2291, Durham, NC
27702 (katie.eyes@bcbsncfoundation.org).
N C Med J. 2014;75(1):84-85. ©2014 by the North Carolina
Institute of Medicine and The Duke Endowment. All rights
reserved.
0029-2559/2014/75122
into the day-to-day life of family physicians. The sup-
port that mentors provide includes not just supervi-
sion of students as they are exposed to common (and
uncommon) medical procedures, but also personal
contact—for example, a student might be invited to
join his or her mentor on the mountain bike trails of
Henderson County. Many of the program scholars
report that what they learn about a family physician’s
lifestyle, particularly in rural areas, is just as important
in influencing their commitment to family medicine as
what they learn about the work of a family physician.
Mentors not only expose students to the real-
world experience of the modern family physician but
also serve as a touchstone over the course of a stu-
dent’s medical school career and beyond. Sadly, as
medical school rotations accelerate over the course
of a student’s career, students increasingly encoun-
ter discouraging messages about primary care. In
fact, one of the most disappointing revelations for
the organizers of the Family Medicine Interest and
Scholars Program has been learning that negative
messages about primary care still permeate the
student experience. For example, one student in the
program responded to a survey with the following
statement:
I’ve interacted with quite a few individuals who seem
to think that people who practice primary care are
less intelligent/capable/driven… It is difficult to hear
other students and a few faculty members downplay
the impact of family doctors.
Through the program, mentors serve as an anti-
dote to these attitudes and remind students about
what drew them to medicine in the first place—the
opportunity to connect with patients. Scholars who
ultimately commit to primary care explain their choice
by citing both their own experience in taking histories
and their observations of their mentor—his or her
approach to team-based care, deep commitment to
patients, and engagement with the community.
A second component of the Family Medicine
Interest and Scholars Program is support for each
school’s Family Medicine Interest Group. This fund-
ing can be used to support student travel to confer-
ences and to bring national speakers to campus. The
schools report that attendance at events organized
by the Family Medicine Interest Group has increased
as a result of these new resources. The ability to
immerse themselves in family medicine on campus
also increases students’ long-term engagement with
the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians
NCMJ vol. 75, no. 1
ncmedicaljournal.com
and provides other opportunities in family medicine.
Some schools have even used the occasion of a visit
by a national speaker as an opportunity to engage
with the larger provider community, elevating the
status of primary care at the regional level.
Early data on the outcomes of this project have
changed the way the North Carolina Academy of
Family Physicians approaches its membership. The
organization has increased educational opportunities
that support mentoring at its annual meeting, and it
has developed more formal criteria for mentors, who
are selected for their commitment to the specialty,
their ability to teach, and their innovative approaches
to primary care. Many of the 45 mentors who have
served in this capacity have regarded their role as a
calling and an opportunity to give back to a field they
have found rewarding.
Finally, the Family Medicine Interest and Scholars
Program offers financial incentives to participants
who enter a family medicine residency after medical
school. The money is delivered in 2 installments—the
first when the scholar matches with a family medi-
cine residency program, and the second when the
scholar commits to practice in North Carolina follow-
ing residency.
While all aspects of the Family Medicine Interest
and Scholars Program play an important role, the
most valuable program component is the relation-
ship between preceptors and the next generation of
family physicians. The true promise of primary care
is realized not only when students learn how to con-
duct a physical exam, but also when they learn how
to advocate for their most vulnerable patients, how
to educate their peers, and how to navigate the local
system of care and all its associated politics. As one
of the program’s scholars explained, a primary care
physician needs to be “both excellent and humble”—
and that is a skill that has to be taught outside the
classroom.
Katie Eyes, MSW senior program officer, Blue Cross and Blue
Shield of North Carolina Foundation, Durham, North Carolina.
Acknowledgment
Potential conflicts of interest. K.E. is an employee of the Blue
Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation.
References
1. Kravet SJ, Shore AD, Miller R, Green GB, Kolodner K, Wright
SM. Health care utilization and the proportion of primary
care physicians. Am J Med. 2008;121(2):142-148.
2. Starfield B, Shi L, Macinko J. Contribution of primary care
to health systems and health. Milbank Q. 2005;83(3):457-
502.
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