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Hey everybody, lowly MS-II here trying to decide if family practice is for me. I was hoping you guys might be able to clear things up for me to better help me decide which field I want to pursue.
At my school we actually have a small set of rotations between MS-I and MS-II. These are just small family practice rotations in rural areas of my state. Long story short, I've actually found that I really enjoy rural FP. I've had many patients and doctors tell me that I would do really well in the career and find that the work keeps me on my toes.
My last rotation was with a doc who mentioned that I could actually be trained to do my own endoscopies and colonoscopies (even C-sections) as a family practice doc. Right now he does neither of those but does take hospital call and does a couple of stress tests up there every week. I was really surprised that you could do stuff like this as an FP....call me a noob
So how does one actually go about finding a residency program that will train you to do these procedures as an FP? Are these programs rare?
Right now I'm trying to decide between gen surg, FP and possibly neurology. There are positives and negatives to each obviously but there is one potential worry I have about FP....mainly concerning NP's and PA's. One of my preceptors literally told me a couple of weeks ago that he doesn't think family practice will exist for physicians in 15 years. He thinks that it will be completely over run by mid levels and MD's will be relegated to administrative roles. One plus about surgery is that the push from these people wouldn't threaten my livelihood. Apparently, they want nothing to do with neurology either (just word of mouth around here). How do you guys see family practice going in the future? Will I even have a clinical role?
All BS aside, I really enjoy the experiences I have in rural family practice. I like having the options to take hospitalist call, work in the ER and do some of the smaller procedures that I could do as a general surgeon. One of the only things that is holding me back from going into the field head first is all the doom and gloom around mid level encroachment on the field. I don't really care about making billions of dollars (sarcasm) or rolling up to clinic in a lambo, I just want to have a job that isn't threatened.....thanks for your insight ahead of time.
At my school we actually have a small set of rotations between MS-I and MS-II. These are just small family practice rotations in rural areas of my state. Long story short, I've actually found that I really enjoy rural FP. I've had many patients and doctors tell me that I would do really well in the career and find that the work keeps me on my toes.
My last rotation was with a doc who mentioned that I could actually be trained to do my own endoscopies and colonoscopies (even C-sections) as a family practice doc. Right now he does neither of those but does take hospital call and does a couple of stress tests up there every week. I was really surprised that you could do stuff like this as an FP....call me a noob
So how does one actually go about finding a residency program that will train you to do these procedures as an FP? Are these programs rare?Right now I'm trying to decide between gen surg, FP and possibly neurology. There are positives and negatives to each obviously but there is one potential worry I have about FP....mainly concerning NP's and PA's. One of my preceptors literally told me a couple of weeks ago that he doesn't think family practice will exist for physicians in 15 years. He thinks that it will be completely over run by mid levels and MD's will be relegated to administrative roles. One plus about surgery is that the push from these people wouldn't threaten my livelihood. Apparently, they want nothing to do with neurology either (just word of mouth around here). How do you guys see family practice going in the future? Will I even have a clinical role?
All BS aside, I really enjoy the experiences I have in rural family practice. I like having the options to take hospitalist call, work in the ER and do some of the smaller procedures that I could do as a general surgeon. One of the only things that is holding me back from going into the field head first is all the doom and gloom around mid level encroachment on the field. I don't really care about making billions of dollars (sarcasm) or rolling up to clinic in a lambo, I just want to have a job that isn't threatened.....thanks for your insight ahead of time.
