This article aims to present a theoretical and practical guideline to primary health care preceptors connected to the Pernambuco Federal University. Primary health care is presumed as a practical setting for students of different undergraduate and graduate courses, with their own characteristics. Important aspects of the teaching-learning process in the community are addressed, including the concept of knowledge in primary care; the preceptor-student relationship; theory-practice correlation; procedural assessment; education and research at work; socio-political context of learning; interdisciplinarity; teamwork and cross-institutional service-learning integration. Finally, it proposes the reintegration of the learning, research and work space.