Family Physician in the ICU

[ztaw15]

I attended a talk recently by a family physician at our school about "what patients want from a doctor" or something along those lines. Basically about the difference between what physician use as criteria for a "good doctor" versus what patients seem to care more about.

Anyhow, the talk was given by an FP from a rural area loosely associated with the school and one of its residencies, and during his talk he mentioned that he had initially done a few years of traditional inpatient/outpatient practice, but lately (he was pretty young) he had been doing ED/inpatient and ICU work. So I was wondering, how common is this? I get that the rules shift a little in rural areas, but I am just wondering how this fits in with anyone else's experience. I don't imagine this area is so rural they don't have some pulm/ccm guys out there.

I would have asked this Dr. directly, but I had to sneak out early and it has been in the back of my mind ever since.

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[deleted6669]

I work at a busy west coast trauma ctr with an fp residency.
we have fp residents rotate through the icu in addition to fp( and im) attendings on the hospitalist service, all of whom follow pts in the icu as well as the floors.

 

[MedicineDoc]

I work at a busy west coast trauma ctr with an fp residency.
we have fp residents rotate through the icu in addition to fp( and im) attendings on the hospitalist service, all of whom follow pts in the icu as well as the floors.

our program 25 bed icu 400 bed hospital. Only fm residents. Hospitalists parallel with alternating admits. One recent fm grad now working as hospitalist at our hospital another at a hospital in Cincinnati. Another recent fm grad working in our Ed alongside Er trained doctors. Our residents moonlight in our Er as well as our urgent care center. Had a leukemia patient with a cardiac tamponade the other day in the icu.

 

[EdibleEgg]

I work in a rural hospital with approximately 100 beds. I care for my own patients in the ICU and perform endoscopy. I also cover 4-8 shifts a month in the ER (20K volume). There are several FP's in the area with similar practices.

 

[cabinbuilder]

I have worked the last two years in rural practice. I have done ER, inpatient, ICU, and outpatient in multiple regions of the country. Mostly in critical access hospitals with 23 beds.

I went to a residency that was very ER, IM, and ICU heavy. I have been in many places where I am the only one who knows how to cast, do joint injections, biopsy, suture, take out cysts, take off small growths, etc. I was trained how to do colonoscopy and EGD in residency but have not had the time in practice to keep that skill up. Since I do OMT well for generalized back pain almost a third of what I do is fix backs since I am the only DO usually anywhere I go.

Now had I wanted to and learned how in residency I could do OB with C-sections and newborn care. This is a very sought after skill in many parts of the country and very well paid. Just an FYI.

This is my job - I am FP