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General practice
medicine
Do you have a strong idealistic streak? A desire to
do
good? Do you thrive on variety? Enjoy relationships with a
wide variety of people?
If any of the following scenarios appeal to you, you might be cut out
to be a family physician, the modern version of the old-fashioned
family doc.
Imagine yourself as the only doctor in a rural community. In
your office, you see young kids, teenagers, adults, pregnant women, and
the elderly. You also work in the hospital maybe in the
emergency room, perhaps also delivering babies and doing minor surgery.
You travel to nursing homes, maybe even to your patients
homes. You see people of all incomes and from a variety of ethnic and
cultural.
Imagine you’re a doctor in the inner-city, seeing
a similarly wide variety of patients.
Imagine yourself going abroad to help train medical workers
in a family medicine program in a developing country.
Or imagine yourself being able to balance your work as a
doctor with your family life and other interests.
Today, family practice is its own specialty. In the 1960s, predictions
were that general practice medicine was a dying field. The age of
specialization had hit, and fewer than one-fifth of medical school
graduates went into general practice. Beyond that, the single year of
residency required seemed inadequate in light of all the new
information and skills doctors needed.
So the specialty of family practice was born. Family practice now has
its own certification and requires a three-year residency after medical
school. The demand for family practitioners is high in almost all areas
of the country.
Whats the
special personal and intellectual challenge of being a family
practitioner?
More than other specialists, you are the one who will see your patient
as a whole person. Your insight and knowledge will help prevent health
problems as well as detect potentially serious problems. You will know
when to refer to specialists. And your sensitivity to and understanding
of a patient;s family situation, culture, and personal habits
will make you effective in the treatment of even common problems.
You can also still focus on an area of interest such as geriatrics,
sports medicine, or adolescent care.
You will have flexibility about how you work: in a solo practice or as
part of a group, in an office or a hospital, or both. Working in
managed care may allow you to better balance your work with other
interests in your life.
A comfortable living vs.
the big bucks?
What about the ;prestige; of being a specialist?
And what about the big bucks specialists can make? If family practice
appeals to you, these probably aren't your major concerns
anyhow. Family practitioners earn high salaries, although they do make
considerably less than doctors in many specialties (median income for
family practitioners in managed care is about $150,000 per year). But
they enjoy flexibility and variety in where and how they work. Family
practitioners are the doctors most recruited by managed care
organizations and for rural and inner-city practices.
So in this age of specialization, there are still doctors who are
trained to integrate the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of
their patients, who learn to treat all ages, both sexes, each organ
system, and every kind of disease.
No one knows what the future of medicine will be like for doctors. But
as you consider your own future, don't check your ideals at
the door.
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