[Community practice in units of primary care at the rural level: an experience with medical students]

During the three weeks of vacation from the sixth semester of medical school in May 1982, a group of six students and a professor in the Department of Social Medicine of Valle University, Colombia, conducted a voluntary experimental exercise in some of the rural primary care units of Tuluá Regional Hospital in Valle del Cauca department, using the hospital's Administration as their operational center. The purpose of the exercise, called "Ruralito," was to compile a health census of the general characteristics of the rural communities constituting the primary health care service area. The teaching process employed was designed to encourage the students to act on their own initiative and in their own way and to exchange experiences and plan measures even after completion of the three years of the exercise. The article describes the salient features of the relationship between teaching practice and public health practice in this first exercise, in which a new instructional framework was introduced for the area of medicine; the students' highly favorable reaction to this exercise and the substantial gains made justify the expectation that it will serve as an example for future student exercises in similar processes.