A collaborative clerkship with a focus on rural community health

The Deans' Rural Primary Care Clerkship was developed through the collaborative efforts of South Carolina's two medical schools. The clerkship provides students an innovative learning experience in rural community medicine through the unique combination of learning opportunities with community-oriented primary care, continuous quality improvement, interdisciplinary health care teams, and cultural competency. Much of students' learning addresses current directives for population health training. The positive experience students are having in these rural, underserved South Carolina communities will help them better understand the rewards and challenges of rural, community-responsive health care.