AHEC CORPCE
About Us
In 1993, 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 AHEC’s (Area Health Education Center) to facilitate the teaching of medical students in community settings.
In 1995, additional funds were allocated from the General Assembly to include nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and physician assistants. The ORPCE mission expanded once again in 1997 with state funding to support Pharm D students from UNC-CH School of Pharmacy.
Since it's creation in 1993, ORPCE has seen a huge increase in community-based student months across the state. The number of community-based preceptors has increased significantly as well. ORPCE currently works with nine different schools, sixteen different programs, and over 140 community-based, primary care courses.
Our Mission:
The mission of the ORPCE’s is to facilitate quality, community-based, primary care education for health science students. In these efforts, the ORPCE will ultimately help to create more primary care providers, especially in underserved and rural areas.
The health profession students included are medical students, nurse midwifery students, nurse practitioner students, physician assistant students and UNC-CH PharmD students.
Schools We Serve:
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- University of North Carolina at Charlotte
- University of North Carolina at Greensboro
- University of North Carolina at Wilmington
- Duke University
- East Carolina University
- Methodist College
- Winston-Salem State University
- Western Carolina University
- Wake Forest University