fam med as first rotation

[Fatalis]

hey guys, starting with family medicine as my first rotation.
Obviously I am super nervous but I have a few questions.
Is this a good rotation to start off with? Also I really want to do fam med, so is this a bad rotation to start off with as I will be super new at it and probably screw up a ton. Any input would be great!

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[Top Gun]

In a way, it is good for you to start off with as family medicine generally covers a bit of everything: internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/Gyn, etc... It will give you a broad medical knowledge base. The disadvantage is that, as it is your first clerkship, you won't be as competent as you would in a later rotation. So you probably won't shine as much as you'd like to. However, they are more forgiving if its your first rotation, and family medicine is a relatively easy residency to match into, so it shouldn't really be a problem.

 

[drfamilymed]

 

[Elixir6]

There is only one thing missing from your physician expectation of patient - have a billable condition and some form of payment (i.e. insurance)

 

[Kaustikos]

I'll say that Family Medicine was a blessing and disaster. The shelf exam is no joke; you really have to pretty much know Internal Med and Peds. The only drawback, imo, is that you'll be setting foot into how medicine operates which could be bad. But the nice thing is having family medicine at a private practice w/ good one-on-one. If the physician knows you're a fresh third year, he'll know how to train you. I started with Family Medicine and I loved it. But I had a hospitalist/fm who also worked at the hospital, too, so I was doing IM and FM. He really taught me a lot and let me do a lot.
Things you should learn to do:
SOAPs. Being in FM outpatient means you should get the hang of doing it really fast after a week. Don't focus on doing H&Ps because it's WAY less important at that moment. Getting SOAPs down is key.