Internal medicine preceptorships: three successful programs.

Undergraduate medical education is evolving to include community physicians in the training of students in the outpatient setting. The task of designing and implementing such preceptorships can be hindered by financial, institutional, and logistic factors. Nonetheless, several institutions have successfully begun such preceptorships, even in the absence of major federal or philanthropic funding. In this article, three institutions offer suggestions for overcoming the factors hindering the development of a successful preceptorship.