Student summer assistantship in family medicine.

Family medicine departments have sought ways to stimulate medical students' interest in family practice. This article summarizes the concepts and structural components of a student summer assistantship program in family medicine. This program's goal was to stimulate interest in family practice by means of a 12-week summer experience designed to provide exposure to the concepts and principles of family medicine, direct patient contact, and the development of a specific research question applicable to the context of family medicine.