FP's future

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Jiminy Cricket

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Ok, so I dont want to nuke a dead horse because I know this topic has been discussed before, but I wanted to know if there is a good future in becoming a Family doc in the BIG city.

I think I'd enjoy FP but I dont want to live in the country out of preference. I know that as an FP in the country, you can start a practice with more potential than oversaturated city markets. But is it possible to make 200k as an FP in the city while working 45-50 hours a week?

Also, is it feasible that PA's could create "residencies" where they would be trained to function as FP's?

Being an FP sounds fun, but the future seems highly unpredictable with some scary consequences.

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Some of my friends going into FP are going into urgent care in the urban market... always a demand for that and it's pretty good money.
 
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Also, is it feasible that PA's could create "residencies" where they would be trained to function as FP's?

The whole PA "threat" thing is getting really tiresome...but I guess we will have to keep talking about it until the myths are dispelled.

As emedpa pointed out, there are already "residencies" for PAs--they are OPTIONAL and from what I understand, there are plenty of docs who hire non-"residency" trained PAs and train them on the job for the scope of practice they will be dealing with (well woman exams, assisting in surgery, etc) in their particular specialty.

PAs getting independent practice rights is an issue rooted in federal and state law. I don't have the time or interest to research this, but maybe someone else does. My hunch is that PAs as a whole are not interested in practicing independently, at least not to the degree that NPs are.
 
Ok, so I dont want to nuke a dead horse because I know this topic has been discussed before

And yet...
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I wanted to know if there is a good future in becoming a Family doc in the BIG city.

Which big city? The job markets are highly variable from one place in the country to another. As for "needing" to go rural, considering that the vast majority of physicians (including family physicians) do not practice in rural areas, I would think the answer to your question would be obvious.

is it possible to make 200k as an FP in the city while working 45-50 hours a week?

Of course, it's possible. That doesn't mean it's guaranteed, however. There are as many variations in practice types, workload, and income in family medicine as in any other field...probably more, given the fact that family physicians can be a lot more flexible in terms of choosing what they do and how/where they do it compared to hospital- or technology-based specialties.

Being an FP sounds fun, but the future seems highly unpredictable with some scary consequences.

I'm not sure what you're talking about that's unique to being a family physician. When I worked for IBM, the future was equally unpredictable. It's the same thing in every field, medical and non-medical. Being an FP is fun, and being part of a constantly-evolving profession is a continual challenge. That's part of the fun.

I'm not commenting further on your PA question because this is the Family Medicine Forum, not the Clinicians Forum. If this thread turns into a discussion of PA education, it will be moved there, where it's more appropriate.
 
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