Medical Students 

Summer Externship Program

Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians' (WAFP):  Begun in 1969, this Program has provided the opportunity for over 1300 students to experience family practice. Unfortunately, the WAFP Program stopped its funding in 2008. However, the Department of Family and Community Medicine continues to sponsor a limited number of students depending on the availability of externship sites.  

DFCM Summer Externship

The goals of the Summer Externship Program are

• To provide the student an early one-on-one experience with a family physician to gain a better appreciation and understanding of primary care medicine, especially family practice.
• To provide an opportunity to better understand what it is like to be a doctor and keep an appropriate perspective through subsequent medical training.
• To provide family physician preceptors the opportunity to teach and to learn while introducing family practice to interested students.
• To provide Wisconsin communities the opportunity to promote themselves as an attractive place in which to practice medicine.

Student extern responsibilities are

• To commit to the completion of the Program (8 weeks).
• To be accountable to your preceptor practice.
• To be a learner, not expecting yourself to behave as a physician.
• To submit your written evaluation form upon completion of your experience (to receive the 2nd check!)

Application forms are available upon request. Please email Leslie Patterson (lpatterson@mcw.edu) for more information.

Your application will be reviewed and acted upon by the Summer Externship Committee. If approved, you will be informed of a subsequent date and place to meet for preceptor selection. Further instructions will then be given.

Thank you for your interest in the Department of Family and Community Medicines' Summer Externship Program.

We wish you every success.