We support students, preceptors, and health science schools.

Health science students from many North Carolina colleges and universities studying allied health, dentistry, medicine, nursing, public health, pharmacy, and social work receive part of their training under NC AHEC auspices in community hospitals, physician’s offices, rural health centers, public health departments, mental health centers, and other health-related settings.

The nine regional AHECs enable statewide community-based training for health professionals in an effort to reverse a trend toward shortages and uneven distribution of health care practitioners in the state’s rural areas.

We also facilitate quality, community-based, primary care education for health science students. Begun in 1993 under the name NC AHEC Office of Regional Primary Care Education (ORPCE) , we provided assistance in that first year to 595 individual students; this number has now reached more than 2,500.

Currently, NC AHEC Student Services facilitates the teaching of medical, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, certified nurse midwifery, and UNC-Chapel Hill PharmD students in 1,382 community sites and with more than 2,180 individual preceptors across the state.

NC AHEC Student Services offers short-term lodging for health science students who are completing community-based rotations in North Carolina. The nine regional AHECs provide housing in 54 counties in approximately 70 towns/cities across the state.

High quality community-based education depends on effective partnerships between the health science schools, regional AHECs, and practicing clinicians.

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