Office of Regional Primary Care Education

The mission of ORPCE is to facilitate quality, community-based primary care education for health science students.

During the 1990's, the NC AHEC Rural Primary Care Initiative received funding from the NC General Assembly to support rural primary care, community-based education.  As a result, an Office of Regional Primary Care Education (ORPCE) was created at each of the nine AHECs to facilitate the teaching of primary care students in community settings.

The AHECs continue to support community-based education for all health science students, however, the focus of ORPCE is to support primary care education for physician, pharmacy, and mid-level health professionals in ambulatory community sites in North Carolina, especially in rural and underserved areas.

The ORPCE staff at Wake AHEC provides support to precepting clinicians, students, and the health science schools by:

• Recruiting and supporting community-based preceptors
• Offering preceptor development activities
• Linking preceptors to AHEC resources
• Assisting Medicine, PA, NP, and PharmD programs with student placements
• Providing housing for ORPCE students (traveling more than 50 miles)
• Assisting with the evaluation of community-based education