Can a 3-day preceptorship change first-year medical students' opinions about living and working in small towns?

Research of medical school initiatives that attempt to orient medical students toward rural medicine may facilitate development of initiatives to alleviate physician maldistribution. This study investigated the effect of a 3-day family medicine preceptorship in a small town on first-year medical students' opinions about a) living and working in small towns and b) plans to live in and practice medicine in small towns. Student feedback about the preceptorship was also examined. Questionnaires were administered to 137 first-year medical students using a separate sample pretest-posttest design. Student feedback indicated that the preceptorship was a valuable learning experience, but the preceptorship did not appear to influence students' opinions about or interest in living in and working in small towns or rural areas. Brief exposure to rural medicine early in the curriculum appears to have little effect on variables that might precede practice location decisions.