Module and Field Permssion

I have an issue that keeps coming up in my vCRM. I imagine the same issue is in the standard CRM as well.

I have a module called CARs, that has a drop down list to select an Account. I want the users who have access to this CAR module to be able to select an account from the list....BUT I do not wan them to have access to the actual Accounts module.

However it seems that in order to allow them to select an Account I have to provide their profile with access to the Account module AND in order for them to see and choose from ANY of the accounts, I have to make the default setting for Account PUBLIC since they don't "own" any of the records.

Is there a way to get around this?

Another scenario would be EMPLOYEES. I want users to be able to select employees from a list in a couple different modules.... but not be able to go into the employees record detail or have access to the EMPLOYEE module.

Any suggestions?