Why does family medicine get a bad rep?

[canmed96]

I am still pre-med so i know this is far off for me, but in considering the possibility of going to a DO school and potentially having a harder time matching into a residency, i have a few questions;

1) Is the thought of family medicine being the "easiest" residency to match with true?

2) I understand FM isn't at the top of the medicine hierarchy, but aren't you still making "doctor money"?

3) Are the hours worse, the process harder??what am i missing about FM that makes it so "bad"

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[timetraveling]

search function located at top right hand of page

 

[NotASerialKiller]

Family is extremely diverse, and so are the hours and compensation. You can work emerg, psych, sports med, typical family clinic, anaesthesiology...

Don't think I've ever heard of a bad reputation, just that it's easier to match in family. If someone is so insecure that they'd only go for the most competitive specialities, then I guess that would be a negative.

 

[DocJuan]

 

[DocJuan]

Honestly though a doctor is a doctor. Who gives af what other people think if family medicine is a passion go for it. I'd rather do that then spend my entire life in an OR tbh.

Plus you can still make bank by owning a large practice. Just know you'll be putting in that much more work.

 

[To be MD]

I am still pre-med so i know this is far off for me, but in considering the possibility of going to a DO school and potentially having a harder time matching into a residency, i have a few questions;

1) Is the thought of family medicine being the "easiest" residency to match with true?

2) I understand FM isn't at the top of the medicine hierarchy, but aren't you still making "doctor money"?

3) Are the hours worse, the process harder??what am i missing about FM that makes it so "bad"

People who look down on family medicine are the same people who get into medicine to "drive a nice car" and "have something prestigious" on their resume. FM is great. That's where my shadowing hours were. As of now, that's what I want to get into.

Who gives a damn if anyone else looks down on it? You'll make a perfectly decent living (better than 90%+ of the world's population, mind you) while having an extremely rewarding career.

Anyone who scoffs at you for that can go suck an egg.

 

[cathemeral]

I get the sense that people in other fields don't view FM as particularly glamorous or exciting. There isn't really the same drama as you see in the OR, not a lot of expensive equipment and procedures compared to things like IR, etc. A lot of it is routine care - diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, screening/health maintenance. It's super important work, but it's not for everyone; the people who do best in FM are fueled by building relationships with patients over time and doing things like patient education. People who are more interested in the procedure aspect of medical care probably won't really be exhilarated by FM.

 

[Lawpy]

I am still pre-med so i know this is far off for me, but in considering the possibility of going to a DO school and potentially having a harder time matching into a residency, i have a few questions;

1) Is the thought of family medicine being the "easiest" residency to match with true?

2) I understand FM isn't at the top of the medicine hierarchy, but aren't you still making "doctor money"?

3) Are the hours worse, the process harder??what am i missing about FM that makes it so "bad"

If anything, family medicine (and primary care in general) should be very much respected. They have the patients (+ essential longitudinal relationships), who they can refer to specialists. Referrals are valuable.

Oh and primary care is versatile since it requires maintaining a very wide set of knowledge for effective general treatment (although some PCPs do specialized procedures when needed).

 

[ChymeofPassion]

FM has a bad rap because pretentious doctors who were pretentious premeds tell other pretentious premeds that the best doctors are based on Step 1 scores and $$$ potential, and to look down on lower scores (even if FM doctors wanted to go into it regardless of their score). And the cycle continues. If you think medicine is a bastion of integrity and altruism (as many premeds applications may suggest), God bless

 

[drcrispmd]

I get the sense that people in other fields don't view FM as particularly glamorous or exciting. There isn't really the same drama as you see in the OR, not a lot of expensive equipment and procedures compared to things like IR, etc. A lot of it is routine care - diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, screening/health maintenance. It's super important work, but it's not for everyone; the people who do best in FM are fueled by building relationships with patients over time and doing things like patient education. People who are more interested in the procedure aspect of medical care probably won't really be exhilarated by FM.

Premeds think all FM does is diabetes, HTN and health maintenance. We do a lot more and do not refer everything out. Who do you think is the one to comes to the diagnosis? FM doc are the ones who their patient goes to with new symptoms to find out what is wrong with them. FM doc are the ones who figure out the diagnosis then send to the specialist (or partialist as I have heard older doc's call them) if needed with a diagnosis. From FM you can do hospitalist, outpatient, mixed outpatient/impatient, OB, peds, ER, urgent, etc. we do procedures in the office. I never know what is going to walk through the door. So 'managing HTN, DM, and health maintenance" is just a small part of it.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[Goro]

Beats the F out of me. The way some SDNers react to the thought of it you'd think it was the 7th Circle of Hell.

I am still pre-med so i know this is far off for me, but in considering the possibility of going to a DO school and potentially having a harder time matching into a residency, i have a few questions;

1) Is the thought of family medicine being the "easiest" residency to match with true?

2) I understand FM isn't at the top of the medicine hierarchy, but aren't you still making "doctor money"?

3) Are the hours worse, the process harder??what am i missing about FM that makes it so "bad"

 

[FutureOncologist]

What I learned from Medical School (and a Primary Care-oriented school at that) is you treat all walks of life, no matter where you are. Even in rural MS. However, your diagnoses will start running the same. What I saw a lot of was diabetes, CAD, post-op heart attack, etc. Things that can be associated with obesity and poor management of health. Mostly follow-up with the PCP, but the FM was very involved with the treatment plan. Most see this as mundane treatments and saying the same things over and over... and over and over again; things like "Stop smoking, eat healthy, get 30 minutes of exercise every day, and reduce salt intake." But that's true with a Cardiologist, Neurologist, and so on. Your patients, if you choose to make a little more money and work in rural areas, will have sort of the same problems. But once again, that's just about every field other than surg.

Are you gonna see horrific traumas and make split-second decisions? Most likely not (unless a patient comes in with a trauma because s/he can't find a hospital.) Mostly these doctors went into it because they 1.) have ties to the community or 2.) want an easy practice, great pay, and work 8-5 workdays with some weekends. This depends on where you work, how many patients you have, how many doctors are in the town, etc.

P.S. non-compliance is going to make you wanna scream at your diabetic patient 2 steps away from going into DKA. It's in every field, but in FM, your patients will most likely be in the lower class whom are either 1.) uneducated about the importance of treating his/her illness or 2.) don't have the $$ to afford the prescription.

 

[bananafish94]

I don't know. I hate how there's often a knee-jerk SDN reaction of "Haha I hope you enjoy your rural family medicine residency," as if it's the worst thing in history. Maybe it's just personal to me because my grandfather was in that field and he was a huge motivation for me to go into medicine, coupled with the fact that I had a blast scribing in a rural family medicine practice, but I think that there should be more respect amongst healthcare professionals in all fields.