Differences

[deedubs]

Hi All,
Med student here about to start rotations. I'm a D.O. student and interested in Family Med. Been reading forums for a while now but was curious about outpatient practice. I'm interested in doing manipulation, joint injection, preventive care, and the usual breadth of family med. Not to interested in peds or ob at this point but that can change. I've read that the only difference between internal and FM is that FM can treat kids and do OB while IM only does adults. But I've also read that FM learns many more procedures and can tailor their education more to how they want to practice. So knowing that I want to work outpatient and do many procedures but have at this point minimal interest in peds/ob would FM best serve me in learning the procedures I'm interested in and have more experience in the outpatient setting.
Thanks for input,
Deedubs

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[deleted87716]

General IM pretty much means all old people, all of the time.

'Nuff said.

 

[lowbudget]

When I was a medical student trying to decide between IM and FM, I thought that the IM curriculum basically focused the organ systems in the thorax and the abdomen and nothing outside of that. I felt that FM offered teaching and experience in the ophtho, ENT, ortho/sports med, uro, gyn, and derm. While the curriculum is very compacted in FM, I felt that at least there was an appreciation by FM that these are important areas and that at the very least I would get some fundamental understanding of these areas in FM. I felt that categorical IM ignored these areas in a resident's education. Even if you were only going to see adult men and women, I felt that I needed a starting point in how I approached problems in these areas without resorting to the yellow pages. To me, FM was the quintessential model for general medicine.

 

[deedubs]

Good to know, thanks again for input.

 

[styphon]

I would think that IM residents can be trained in joint injections and derm procedures, right? Although it seems if they want to do EGD/colonoscopies they would have to do the GI fellowship..

Lots of our procedures are also OB/gyn based: IUD insertions, Norplant insertions, endometrial biopsies, and all that goes with prenatal/L&D care, which of course IM would not do any of.

 

[EdibleEgg]

Although it seems if they want to do EGD/colonoscopies they would have to do the GI fellowship.

Maybe... Maybe not.

 

[simpler2]

Also, consider where you see yourself practicing in the future. If that is primarily outpatient clinic, there is generally .5day per week of this throughout IM (often less with ward months) as opposed to 2days per week second and third year of FM training. Primary care track IM residencies may double clinic time but it will still be much less than in FM. Not that IM docs aren't capable in clinic, but it seems that many approach these patients like they're in the hospital. If you want the most tailored training for your future practice then FM will be better for outpt primary care and IM better for adult hospital care.