I'm a Family Medicine attending in my 2nd year of practice. Ask me anything

[hsmooth]

Hey fellow SDN'ers ! I always liked reading these AMA threads, and a search here shows it's been about 3-4 years since a family medicine attending opened up one of these threads. I figure I'd jump in to the ring and answer your questions. Maybe I can help answer any of your burning questions about medicine, school, life in general ?.. haha!

A bit about myself:
I'm in my 2nd year of practice so I like to think I'm still young and can relate to life as a pre-med, med student, or resident
Some things I enjoy doing: traveling, photography, videography, techie toys, eating copious amounts of food, reading the internet, sports, basketball, working out, and being as lazy as I can possibly be.

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[Fijj]

Why did you choose family medicine?

 

[deleted421268]

Hey fellow SDN'ers ! I always liked reading these AMA threads, and a search here shows it's been about 3-4 years since a family medicine attending opened up one of these threads. I figure I'd jump in to the ring and answer your questions. Maybe I can help answer any of your burning questions about medicine, school, life in general ?.. haha!

A bit about myself:
I'm in my 2nd year of practice so I like to think I'm still young and can relate to life as a pre-med, med student, or resident
Some things I enjoy doing: traveling, photography, videography, techie toys, eating copious amounts of food, reading the internet, sports, basketball, working out, and being as lazy as I can possibly be.

What was family medicine residency like for you? Did you sub specialize? When you were doing rotations as med student what you think of other specialties of medicine like surgery, anesthesia, internal med, and etc?

 

[hsmooth]

Why did you choose family medicine?

The "politically correct" and "feel good" answer is: when I was growing up and decided I wanted to be a doctor, I was inspired by my own family medicine doctor. He had taken care of my parents, grandparents, and sibling. He'd always take an interest in not just our health but other aspects of our lives and provided guidance. Everyone in the community knew him and loved him because he was not just a good clinician but genuinely took the time to know his patients and care for them even outside of medicine. So this was my ideal image of what being a physician would be like -- establishing long relationships with patients, taking care of generations within their family, and being an active advocate in the community.

Now other honest pragmatic reasons include:
- lifestyle - wanted an outpatient based schedule, and the ability and versatility to mold my practice into what I like doing. Didn't like surgery or the OR in my rotations
- I was never a great test taker, so my board scores didn't realistically allow me to apply for other nice outpatient based subspecialties that I might have enjoyed doing.

 

[Fijj]

The "politically correct" and "feel good" answer is: when I was growing up and decided I wanted to be a doctor, I was inspired by my own family medicine doctor. He had taken care of my parents, grandparents, and sibling. He'd always take an interest in not just our health but other aspects of our lives and provided guidance. Everyone in the community knew him and loved him because he was not just a good clinician but genuinely took the time to know his patients and care for them even outside of medicine. So this was my ideal image of what being a physician would be like -- establishing long relationships with patients, taking care of generations within their family, and being an active advocate in the community.

Now other honest pragmatic reasons include:
- lifestyle - wanted an outpatient based schedule, and the ability and versatility to mold my practice into what I like doing. Didn't like surgery or the OR in my rotations
- I was never a great test taker, so my board scores didn't realistically allow me to apply for other nice outpatient based subspecialties that I might have enjoyed doing.

If you had great test scores, what other options could you choose?
And thanks for being honest

 

[hsmooth]

What was family medicine residency like for you? Did you sub specialize? When you were doing rotations as med student what you think of other specialties of medicine like surgery, anesthesia, internal med, and etc?

What was family medicine residency like for you?
3 years for FM residency. Intern year was toughest and most time consuming and mentally challenging. Worked close to average 60-70 hours per week during intern year. 2nd and 3rd years were more outpatient based at my residency. Averaged 50-55 hours per week. Looking back at it, aside from intern year, residency wasn't too bad.

Did you sub specialize?
Not technically. Some of my friends went on to do Family medicine fellowships after residency like sports medicine and OB. I tried to learn the procedures I was interested in doing - so I learned how to do joint injections, skin biopsies, that kind of thing. Plus I went to a DO school so a part of my daily practice involves doing hands-on medicine or OMM / OMT.

surgery, anesthesia, internal med?
I still kept an open mind as a med student going through these rotations. Some of them I enjoyed, but couldn't picture myself doing as a career. General surgery fascinating - performing procedures where for the most part people had immediate positive outcomes. Seeing upclose how amazing the human body is from a different perspective. Anesthesia - I only did one month of it, and the anesthesiologists seemed to enjoy what they did, but I was bored. Nice lifestyle and income though I gather. Internal medicine - my experience was mostly academic based in the hospital setting -- too much rounding and deliberating. But now that I have colleagues who practice outpatient Internal medicine, I think I may have enjoyed that too. The other specialities I enjoyed was ortho - the surgeries were cool, and it seemed like most of the docs at some point or another were "jocks" or all into sports so it was a fun working environment.

 

[hsmooth]

If you had great test scores, what other options could you choose?
And thanks for being honest

I might have considered Derm.
And on days when my patients are bugging me, I dream about being a radiologist and not having to deal with patients in person for the most part....HAH!

 

[deleted421268]

What are your hours like now post residency? What kind of setting you work at? Do you plan to go private practice someday?

 

[Fijj]

I might have considered Derm.
And on days when my patients are bugging me, I dream about being a radiologist and not having to deal with patients in person for the most part....HAH!

Haha I feel you. Thanks for helping me out

 

[hsmooth]

What are your hours like now post residency? What kind of setting you work at? Do you plan to go private practice someday?

What are your hours like now post residency?
Seeing patients 8 am to 5 pm, four days a week. I am out the door at 5 pm on the dot each day, going home. If I'm lucky I'll leave at 4:50 or so too.
8 am to Noon on 1/2 day a week.
No weekends.
1 hour lunch break
On average I might spend 2-3 hours per week outside of the clinic doing work. Like doing notes from my laptop in my pyjamas at home while I watch a football or basketball game on TV.

What kind of setting you work at?
Hospital/Healthcare-system owned outpatient clinic. 1 doc, 2 midlevels, 2 front desk staff, and a handful of MAs/LPNs/RN.

Do you plan to go private practice someday?
There aren't many people doing classic private practice these days. A lot of them were bought out by hospital systems. I may consider doing direct primary care in the future if that continues to grow.

 

[deleted480308]

can you describe your practice model...and do you ever dream of changing it, and why?

 

[hsmooth]

can you describe your practice model...and do you ever dream of changing it, and why?

I do work in a healthcare system owned clinic so they do push volume and productivity, obviously. Direct primary care, or taking care of a 'roster' of patients has some appeal to me as maybe I could spend more time with patients going in to detail about teaching, motivation, counselling etc. At this point, I would punt or refer all that stuff to a nutritionist, diabetic teacher, etc.

 

[deleted421268]

As an undergrad, did you ever visit friends that went to other colleges like visiting your high school friends? During med school did you rent off campus apartment and stay with anyone? How'd you commute from place to school? Do you practice in your hometown or you practice outside of your hometown?

 

[hsmooth]

As an undergrad, did you ever visit friends that went to other colleges like visiting your high school friends? During med school did you rent off campus apartment and stay with anyone? How'd you commute from place to school? Do you practice in your hometown or you practice outside of your hometown?

As an undergrad, did you ever visit friends that went to other colleges like visiting your high school friends?
Oh yeah for sure. I went away for college about 1.5 hours from my hometown. I'd have my high school friends come visit on weekends and I'd go back home on other weekends.

During med school did you rent off campus apartment and stay with anyone?
During first two years of med school, there was a townhouse style complex across the street from the med school campus. I had a roommate who was in the same class as me...actually most people there were either in the med program, PT, DPM, or PA program. Fun times. We even started a band together during med school and played gigs on the weekends when we weren't studying.

During my 3rd and 4th years of med school, I did clinical rotations all over the country - Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa, etc. So was just renting month to month.

How'd you commute from place to school?
Two feet and a heartbeat! or...jump in the car.

Do you practice in your hometown or you practice outside of your hometown?
Currently, my wife and I are living about 30 minutes from where she was born and grew up.

 

[Frogger27]

Tell us about the $$$

 

[hsmooth]

Tell us about the $$$

Sure thing. What you want to know?

 

[Frogger27]

Sure thing. What you want to know?

What is your pre tax annual income? Do you feel fairly compensated? Any things you are thinking about in the future to increase your compensation?

 

[deleted731525]

Awesome, I'm considering Family Medicine. Do you find your work interesting? If so, what aspect? If not, what specialty do you think you would find most interesting?

 

[hsmooth]

What is your pre tax annual income? Do you feel fairly compensated? Any things you are thinking about in the future to increase your compensation?

What is your pre tax annual income?
I finished residency 2 years ago and signed on to my job with an 18 month salary guarantee of $220k pretax. I live in a low cost of living area in the midwest, in a slightly smaller town of about 80,000. This salary was about $35k more than if I stayed in the city where I did residency which was a medium to larger city of population 600,000 / 2 million in the greater city region. After my 18 month salary guarantee, my income is mostly based on production / RVUs and to some small degree patient satisfaction scores and quality metrics.

Taking about 8 weeks of vacation this year I figure to earn about $245k. Next year, if I take only 4-6 weeks of vacation I hope to make $300k. I definitely feel this is fair compensation. As a med student, I never really thought I could make this much as a family med doc.

I know some family med docs in my group that make >$300k.

Any things you are thinking about in the future to increase your compensation?
Have multiple streams of income, maybe not necessarily medicine related. Maximize my investments. Decrease extraneous purchases. Rental property? Online blogger? Develop some product?

Practice good medicine, be personable and likeable by your patients, show them you care, and you'll have as busy of a practice as you want. I might try to convince the manager to hire a scribe for me.

 

[YoungDoc25]

I've been hoping a FM one would show up! Thanks for helping us out!

Do you have any friends that went in to rural family med? If so, how has their experience been? Have you felt any heat from the proposed NP/PA encroachment on your specialty?

 

[hsmooth]

Awesome, I'm considering Family Medicine. Do you find your work interesting? If so, what aspect? If not, what specialty do you think you would find most interesting?

Do you find your work interesting?

It's interesting enough where I'm not bored yet! True some days are like bronchitis, sinusitis, ADD, rinse and repeat. But you get to meet some funny, interesting, weird, nice, mean patients to add enough variety in your day! Then you'll get some really complicated patients that challenge you to put your thinking cap on. Once in a while you'll get a really cool unique case. Then you can also mold your practice to your personal interests too. I like doing joint injections, skin procedures, etc.

You develop some relationships with patients and bond with them over their accomplishments, struggles, failures, and life events. I had a patient bring me a whole duck once, as a token of their appreciation.

 

[Frogger27]

What is your pre tax annual income?
I finished residency 2 years ago and signed on to my job with an 18 month salary guarantee of $220k pretax. I live in a low cost of living area in the midwest, in a slightly smaller town of about 80,000. This salary was about $35k more than if I stayed in the city where I did residency which was a medium to larger city of population 600,000 / 2 million in the greater city region. After my 18 month salary guarantee, my income is mostly based on production / RVUs and to some small degree patient satisfaction scores and quality metrics.

Taking about 8 weeks of vacation this year I figure to earn about $245k. Next year, if I take only 4-6 weeks of vacation I hope to make $300k. I definitely feel this is fair compensation. As a med student, I never really thought I could make this much as a family med doc.

I know some family med docs in my group that make >$300k.

Any things you are thinking about in the future to increase your compensation?
Have multiple streams of income, maybe not necessarily medicine related. Maximize my investments. Decrease extraneous purchases. Rental property? Online blogger? Develop some product?

Practice good medicine, be personable and likeable by your patients, show them you care, and you'll have as busy of a practice as you want. I might try to convince the manager to hire a scribe for me.

Thanks for the reply. What do you think of the future of FM? Including both compensation and competition from mid levels.

 

[hsmooth]

I've been hoping a FM one would show up! Thanks for helping us out!

Do you have any friends that went in to rural family med? If so, how has their experience been? Have you felt any heat from the proposed NP/PA encroachment on your specialty?

Thanks for the reply. What do you think of the future of FM? Including both compensation and competition from mid levels.

Gonna answer these two together

Do you have any friends that went in to rural family med? If so, how has their experience been?
Yes, in a rural setting you have less resources around usually so you become a good jack-of-all-trades doc. Doing your own casting, procedures, diagnostic testing, and initial workup / management until the patient can get in to a specialist at a larger or tertiary site. On the business aspect of things, rural sites usually will compensate you better $ and may pay off your loans more / quicker.

Have you felt any heat from the proposed NP/PA encroachment on your specialty?
Speaking from only my own first hand experience, I have not felt the need to worry. At the core of it all, health systems will still value an MD/DO provider's ability to bring in revenue. I've found many NP/PA's are great at handling fundamental family medicine but would still be more comfortable having complicated patients see an MD/DO. So there's always going to be patients for you to see. I overread all the x rays / EKGs that our site's midlevels order. They bring me in to look at weird rashes ...etc..

They're also great for handling basic same-day issues too like coughs, URIs, sinus infections -- things that I don't really care to see too much of on a day to day basis. That would get monotonous.

I think it's a pretty good working arrangement to have a nice mix of doctors and NP/PAs in an outpatient setting.

What do you think of the future of FM? Including both compensation
Over the past few years there's definitely been a bigger push for compensating primary care well. As primary care providers, we also need to do a better job representing ourselves on medical boards, and advocacy groups. Running joke around here is that the specialists all sat on the board and made the big financial decisions because they already had enough money to stop seeing pts, while the FM doc was slaving away seeing pts to put food on the table --- haha!

In my medical group, we are definitely seeing more FM trained doctors take on leadership roles so I will hope that we will continue to be better represented.

 

[Fijj]

What is your pre tax annual income?
I finished residency 2 years ago and signed on to my job with an 18 month salary guarantee of $220k pretax. I live in a low cost of living area in the midwest, in a slightly smaller town of about 80,000. This salary was about $35k more than if I stayed in the city where I did residency which was a medium to larger city of population 600,000 / 2 million in the greater city region. After my 18 month salary guarantee, my income is mostly based on production / RVUs and to some small degree patient satisfaction scores and quality metrics.

Taking about 8 weeks of vacation this year I figure to earn about $245k. Next year, if I take only 4-6 weeks of vacation I hope to make $300k. I definitely feel this is fair compensation. As a med student, I never really thought I could make this much as a family med doc.

I know some family med docs in my group that make >$300k.

Any things you are thinking about in the future to increase your compensation?
Have multiple streams of income, maybe not necessarily medicine related. Maximize my investments. Decrease extraneous purchases. Rental property? Online blogger? Develop some product?

Practice good medicine, be personable and likeable by your patients, show them you care, and you'll have as busy of a practice as you want. I might try to convince the manager to hire a scribe for me.

So then why are salaries for most family practitioners so low compared to the salary you are getting?
Is it being rural?

 

[iforget2]

Once out of residency do people make the choice to sacrifice pay to work 30 hours/week and is it easy to find these types of positions?

 

[summergirl]

Once out of residency do people make the choice to sacrifice pay to work 30 hours/week and is it easy to find these types of positions?

I desperately would like to know this as well. And how much can someone expect to earn in this situation if they choose to practice in a very saturated location (i.e. NYC or LA)?

 

[hsmooth]

So then why are salaries for most family practitioners so low compared to the salary you are getting?
Is it being rural?

One reason is simple supply and demand economics. Classic "less desirable" or "rural" areas have a harder time recruiting physicians to work there than your typical LAs, NYCs, San Diegos, etc. So they are forced to offer better compensation plans and sign on bonuses. There's enough demand for people to want to live in San Diego for example that they'd take whatever is offered. That's why you'll see some FM jobs along the east or west coast that offer much less, like $160-$180k.

 

[hsmooth]

Once out of residency do people make the choice to sacrifice pay to work 30 hours/week and is it easy to find these types of positions?

Once out of residency do people make the choice to sacrifice pay to work 30 hours/week and is it easy to find these types of positions?
There are many different work situations and opportunities available - it's just what is out there at the particular time you're looking. Most people coming out of residency will have some form of enormous med school debt to the order of $100k-$500k in debt so most people end up working full time at first.

I suppose if you come out of residency without any debt, or if your partner makes a whole ton of money and you don't really have to, you can take your time to really wait for the perfect work opportunity to pop up. Systems do hire part-time (ie 30 hours) per week, as well.

Or you could work at an urgent care center and take shifts as you need or want.

 

[hsmooth]

I desperately would like to know this as well. And how much can someone expect to earn in this situation if they choose to practice in a very saturated location (i.e. NYC or LA)?

how much can someone expect to earn in this situation if they choose to practice in a very saturated location (i.e. NYC or LA)?
This one is a bit hard for me to answer as I never applied for any FM jobs in a very saturated location. From anecdotal experience, one of my friends out of residency took a job on the East Coast and her salary was $165k or something for a full time position. This was two years ago though.

 

[FeinMS]

How many patients do you see everyday and how long, on average, do you spend with them? Thanks

 

[sharkbyte]

Thanks for doing this! How did you deal with or manage the difficulties and stress of intern year?

 

[hsmooth]

How many patients do you see everyday and how long, on average, do you spend with them? Thanks

I average 13 to 18 patients a day. 45 min for physicals, 15 minutes for acute one problem visits, and 30 minutes for everything else

 

[hsmooth]

Thanks for doing this! How did you deal with or manage the difficulties and stress of intern year?

You're welcome! I was lucky and thankful that I did residency at a program that actually took the 80 hour work week limit serious. It did a world of wonders knowing exactly what time you'd get to leave the hospital.

Having a supportive family, loved one, and hobbies outside of medicine helped.

Once I started taking my own health serious too I felt much better. No matter how tired I was I made sure I took time to work out, lift weights, and exercise.

 

[efle]

DO vs MD is a common topic on these forums. Do you feel attending a DO school had any impact on your career thus far (e.g. the options you had for residency, availability of big city jobs if you hadn't been happy with small town setting)? Would you strongly advise one way or the other to someone holding acceptances to both DO and MD schools?

 

[deleted421268]

What was your undergrad major? How was the transition from college to med school in terms of academics for you? How many hours day you study during med school?

 

[hsmooth]

DO vs MD is a common topic on these forums. Do you feel attending a DO school had any impact on your career thus far (e.g. the options you had for residency, availability of big city jobs if you hadn't been happy with small town setting)? Would you strongly advise one way or the other to someone holding acceptances to both DO and MD schools?

As a family med doc, DO vs MD degree has had absolutely no negative impact on my career so far. Even when I applied to a 'city' job, they never even brought up the fact I was a DO. In many cases even when I was looking in to the 'city' jobs, they were basically recruiting me to take their job.

Patients for the most part don't know whether you're an MD or DO, nor do they really care for the most part as long as you show them empathy and take good care of them. Once in a while I'll have a patient ask me what a DO is, afterwhich a quick explanation they would say, "Oh, ok! neat!" and continue on with things.

In other instances I've had patients specifically come to me because I'm a DO and they think I'm going to treat them extra 'holistically' and other things that have been marketed as a benefit of an osteopathic physician.

I personally know of DOs in basically any specialty or sub-specialty be it neurosurgery, derm, ENT, surgery, IM, cardiology...however I do also know that the availability of residency slots in those other specialties may be fewer for DO-specific residencies. So if you're considering a specialty other than FM, do you research into whether it would be hard to match into the DO residency.

If you hold acceptances to both an MD and DO program - I would consider looking in to the following factors:
- if the specialty you're really interested in has many more residency slots available through the MD route. Play the safe numbers game.
- support systems in place if/when you struggle during the academic portions of medical school?
- clinical rotation sites in 3rd and 4th year medical school. I knew I didn't want to be in an 'academic' role in my career so it was nice that my rotation sites were based out of community hospitals and clinics rather than tertiary academic centers.
- and don't forget one important factor - TUITION! All other things being equal take the cheaper tuition fees by far! Your future grownup self will thank you.

 

[hsmooth]

M2 here strongly considering family medicine. Thanks so much for answering our questions. Just wondering what were some factors you looked for in a residency program? I'm also leaning towards living/practicing in a rural area (grew up out in the country), and I know that some residency programs are geared towards training FM docs to practice in rural areas. How important do you think it would be for someone interested in rural practice to do a more rural-focused residency program?

You're welcome!
Here are just a few of my own factors that I looked at when applying / interviewing at residencies:
- the overall 'feel' and 'happiness' level of the other residents. You can pick up stuff just by walking through the clinic, or coming back for a second look on a non-interview day. It says a lot about how the program treats their residents when they're not expecting an applicant to be walking through.
- pass rate of residents on board exams
- fit with the attending physicians and how their 'teaching' style is
- some programs are definitely more 'community' or 'academic' based.
- patient volume. Will you easily get your #s needed to graduate and be a well rounded physician? I feel like most of what I learned in my medical education came from my residency years. I don't think I remember anything important from medical school.
- opposed vs unopposed residency. I think a bigger deal is made out of this than needed. As long as you get the numbers you need to be compentent, I didn't really care if I had to work alongside other residents from other programs/specialties. Actually, it made life better!

I can see some benefit in going to a program that is 'rural focused' however don't rule out other 'city' programs. Sometimes a city program has benefits in greater patient volume and thus greater variety of illness than if you want to a small rural program. You're going to need as varied an education as possible because when you're rural, you may not have Dr. Specialist down the hallway to pop over and ask a question to. Go to a program that teaches and gives you enough numbers in the procedures you want to do. Learn as many procedures as possible.

 

[hsmooth]

What was your undergrad major? How was the transition from college to med school in terms of academics for you? How many hours day you study during med school?

I did a regular ol' Bachelor of Science.
The material wasn't innately more difficult, it was just the volume of material that was thrown at you all at once. You're juggling 4-5 different classes with labs and standardized patient encounters, and it seemed like there was some sort of exam, test, or assignement due every week that needed your attention. You have to learn how to manage your time efficiently.

For the first 2 years of classroom work in medschool, I'd say I'd average 2-3 hours per day. Much more cramming though on top of that when the tests became bunched together.

 

[BombsAway]

Thank you for your time!

 

[GrignardsReagent]

What was your favorite class in undergrad? In medical school?

Do you have anything you wish you knew before you started medical school?

Any regrets about becoming a physician?

 

[hsmooth]

What was your favorite class in undergrad?
Easily it was sex psychology / sex Ed. A topic that everyone is interested in, but often times misunderstood !!

In medical school?
History of medicine. Knowing where you come from helps you be better in the future.

Do you have anything you wish you knew before you started medical school?
I wish I took the time to learn about personal finance and investing at a younger age. Maybe part of it is just maturity... But I blew through a lot of money unnecessarily in my 20s.

My advice... Read the websites:
White Coat Investor
Physician On Fire
Bogleheads

Any regrets about becoming a physician?
None, but I wish I had a physician mentor who told me medicine wasn't going to be all biscuits and gravy...and also warned me of the side of medicine that involves drug seekers, insurance prior authorizations, stacks of paperwork, the emergence of 'Dr. Google', pressure to see more and more patients, doing charts on the weekend, and >$200k student loans!

What was your favorite class in undergrad? In medical school?

Do you have anything you wish you knew before you started medical school?

Any regrets about becoming a physician?

 

[Dr.Sticks]

Would you ever consider a concierge practice?

Do you have a big house?(sorry had to ask lol)

 

[hsmooth]

Would you ever consider a concierge practice?
I would actually consider it. There's not too many of those established yet in our neck of the woods at this time though.

Do you have a big house?(sorry had to ask lol)
2750 sq ft house in a newer subdivision, 3 car garage, 1/3 of an acre, back yard looks out to a wooded forest. House is 8 years old now but still looks new. We just hired a professional interior designer that re-did all our furnishings and decor and we love it!

Unfinished basement would be an extra 1300 sq ft. It's actually too much for just my wife and I. We learned that we don't enjoy housework, cleaning, or landscaping / yard work. So we have a cleaning lady and hire a landscaping crew to take care of the seasonal yard fertilizing etc.

If you want a big house -- definitely live in a low cost of living area.

We've actually thought about downsizing and just living in a 2 bedroom condo instead. It'd save us money and we'd probably be able to retire earlier.

Would you ever consider a concierge practice?

Do you have a big house?(sorry had to ask lol)

 

[Dr.Sticks]

Would you ever consider a concierge practice?
I would actually consider it. There's not too many of those established yet in our neck of the woods at this time though.

Do you have a big house?(sorry had to ask lol)
2750 sq ft house in a newer subdivision, 3 car garage, 1/3 of an acre, back yard looks out to a wooded forest. House is 8 years old now but still looks new. We just hired a professional interior designer that re-did all our furnishings and decor and we love it!

Unfinished basement would be an extra 1300 sq ft. It's actually too much for just my wife and I. We learned that we don't enjoy housework, cleaning, or landscaping / yard work. So we have a cleaning lady and hire a landscaping crew to take care of the seasonal yard fertilizing etc.

If you want a big house -- definitely live in a low cost of living area.

We've actually thought about downsizing and just living in a 2 bedroom condo instead. It'd save us money and we'd probably be able to retire earlier.

I want a farm to be honest
I don't really care about the house size
But give me hundreds and hundreds of acres and I will be happy

If I made what you made I wouldn't even know what to do with it after loans are paid off lol

I am a cheapskate lol
I have 2nd thoughts about buying a 72 cent chocolate bar.

Overall the only thing I dislike about family med is well it isn't like it used to be

Back in the day you had one doc and he did the appendectomy as well as treat your cold..

When I envision being a doctor I think of the old days of medicine not the whole specialist thing we got going on now

 

[GrignardsReagent]

I appreciate you taking the time to answer our questions!

When did you know you wanted to know you wanted to specialize in family medicine?

 

[hsmooth]

I want a farm to be honest
I don't really care about the house size
But give me hundreds and hundreds of acres and I will be happy

If I made what you made I wouldn't even know what to do with it after loans are paid off lol

I am a cheapskate lol
I have 2nd thoughts about buying a 72 cent chocolate bar.

Overall the only thing I dislike about family med is well it isn't like it used to be

Back in the day you had one doc and he did the appendectomy as well as treat your cold..

When I envision being a doctor I think of the old days of medicine not the whole specialist thing we got going on now

Sounds like you should be a rural FM doc then. I know rural docs that do colonoscopies, moonlight at the rural ER, and sometimes second assist on surgeries as backup for the surgeons. Have your work pay off your student loans for being rural...then buy yourself 10 acres of wooded or farm land for cheap, donate to charities you believe in, and call it a good life!

 

[hsmooth]

I appreciate you taking the time to answer our questions!

When did you know you wanted to know you wanted to specialize in family medicine?

I had an idea I wanted to be FM going in to medical school, but after experiencing all the specialties on rotations as a 3rd and 4th year med student -- it didn't change my mind at all!

 

[Dr.Sticks]

Sounds like you should be a rural FM doc then. I know rural docs that do colonoscopies, moonlight at the rural ER, and sometimes second assist on surgeries as backup for the surgeons. Have your work pay off your student loans for being rural...then buy yourself 10 acres of wooded or farm land for cheap, donate to charities you believe in, and call it a good life!

Gonna think about it when I get to med school
But I think I will do what you do just in a very rural area
I find cities to be very depressing and they make me sad.
I need to see the stars, smell the roses, etc
I would much rather sit on a porch and watch horses in pasture than do anything else in the world.. Lol

 

[The Buff OP]

working out, and being as lazy as I can possibly be.

What's your max, bro?

What places have you visited and which are a must?

 

[hsmooth]

What's your max, bro?
LOL...compared to you, I don't even lift bro.
I've struggled with being a skinny kid most my life. Hit my low point during my intern year when I was working a ton and didn't really have time to eat. I was 5'10" and 128 lbs. Then made it a priority to get my health right. Now sitting at about 160 lbs, which ain't a lot but better than 128! haha. My bench sucks, but I'm kinda proud of my squat - maxed out 1RM of 315 lbs.

What places have you visited and which are a must?
Just in the past 2 years since being out of residency we've vacationed internationally to Iceland, Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Bahamas. In the States we've visited Charleston, California, Grand Canyon, Martha's Vineyard.

Hands down, Iceland was our favorite place. It's such a wild magical place of volcanoes, lava fields, hundreds of huge waterfalls you can walk right up to, gorges, mountains, black sand beaches, and fjords. In the winter you get ice caves and northern lights.

If anyone's interested, I made a bada$$ drone + gopro video of our iceland trip I'll show you...it'll make your jaw drop!

What's your max, bro?

What places have you visited and which are a must?