In May 1975, the American Medical Student Association Foundation began the development of a primary care preceptorship program for medical and osteopathic students in National Health Service Corps (NHSC) communities. The goals of the preceptorship program were to (1) provide experience in the delivery of primary care in a health manpower shortage area in order to attract them to primary care specialties in similar locations; (2) to involve the NHSC assignees in the educational process; (3) to assist NHSC assignees in establishing academic linkage and clinical backup for their practices; (4) to increase the number of potential future health providers for NHSC programs; and (5) to evaluate the preceptorship program. The program administration, development, operation, and evaluation are discussed. The appendices include the preceptorship site assessment instruments, a list of sites and the number of student participants for each program cycle, the educational guidelines for the program, a description of the evaluation methodology, and the evaluation instruments. (Author/BW)