Internal med vs family med vs general practitiner vs pcp?

[InfoNerd101]

What are the difference between all of these docs?

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[VA Hopeful Dr]

Internal medicine is a 3 year residency focused on adult medicine.

Family medicine is a 3 year residency that covers adult medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics.

General practitioner is someone who only completed an intern year.

A Primary Care Physician (PCP) is a physician who does primary care not a particular method of training.

 

[InfoNerd101]

Internal medicine is a 3 year residency focused on adult medicine.

Family medicine is a 3 year residency that covers adult medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics.

General practitioner is someone who only completed an intern year.

A Primary Care Physician (PCP) is a physician who does primary care not a particular method of training.

So what can each of them do?

 

[FCMike11]

So what can each of them do?

Are you kidding me? Use google.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using SDN mobile

 

[deleted87716]

So what can each of them do?

Seriously. Do your own homework.

 

[InfoNerd101]

Seriously. Do your own homework.

I did and there seems to be so much overlap

 

[Rekt]

I did and there seems to be so much overlap

Because there is. It's not 100% cut-and-dry and it will vary by practice and patient population.

 

[F1rstGen]

This thread makes me think there is some irony in OP's username....

This is a question answerable by a quick google search and is at least partly just about semantics. Do your basic research and report back with any specific questions.

 

[deleted87716]

So what can each of them do?

To summarize the post that you quoted:

IM = Adults.
FM = Adults, kids, and preggos (or some self-selected subset thereof).
GP = Whatever they can manage to get hired to do (without Board certification in this day and age, good luck, and God bless).

 

[SqEdSaint]

To summarize the post that you quoted:

IM = Adults.
FM = Adults, kids, and preggos (or some self-selected subset thereof).
GP = Whatever they can manage to get hired to do (without Board certification in this day and age, good luck, and God bless).

So if i told regular people thats i'm a GP they would think i'm not board certified?
Would they know what a PCP is? Sorry stupid questions, but i always thought PCP is just a fancier name for GP.

 

[InfoNerd101]

This thread makes me think there is some irony in OP's username....

This is a question answerable by a quick google search and is at least partly just about semantics. Do your basic research and report back with any specific questions.

Oh please, get off your high horse, you people are suspicious of everything around here... the second someone asks/ challenges something u all cry "troll"

 

[InfoNerd101]

So if i told regular people thats i'm a GP they would think i'm not board certified?
Would they know what a PCP is? Sorry stupid questions, but i always thought PCP is just a fancier name for GP.

Half these people don't even know the difference between a nurse practitioner and a physician.

 

[F1rstGen]

So if i told regular people thats i'm a GP they would think i'm not board certified?
Would they know what a PCP is? Sorry stupid questions, but i always thought PCP is just a fancier name for GP.

PCP is usually the regular physician that sees a person for health maintanence, routine care, or illness of low acuity not necessitating hospitalization. PCP used to mean primary care physician but has now been reinvented to also mean "primary care provider" as some people use a PA/NP exclusively. When you see "refer to PCP for follow-up" on a patient note it is taken to mean a family medicine or internal medicine physician in a outpatient clinic setting. A PCP can be an Internist, FM, or Pediatrician but just because you are board certified in those fields doesn't mean you are a PCP (ex. a FM doc working urgent care).

Oh please, get off your high horse, you people are suspicious of everything around here... the second someone asks/ challenges something u all cry "troll"

The assumption is that most people that come to this forum are medical professionals or hope to soon become one. We expect some minimal level of knowledge in posts. Answering super basic questions that can be googled would be a waste of everyone's time and reduces the value of this forum when you crowd it with posts of minimal utility. Keep that fluff in the lounge.

 

[deleted87716]

So if i told regular people thats i'm a GP they would think i'm not board certified?
Would they know what a PCP is? Sorry stupid questions, but i always thought PCP is just a fancier name for GP.

Most of us consider the term "PCP" a pejorative.

Why would you tell anyone you're a GP...?

 

[tantacles]

Keep it civil, guys.

 

[JonMonkey]

I did and there seems to be so much overlap

This is where it is important to learn your source and its relevance to the answer you seek. Just because you read it on the internet DOES NOT make it true.

 

[JustPlainBill]

So if i told regular people thats i'm a GP they would think i'm not board certified?
Would they know what a PCP is? Sorry stupid questions, but i always thought PCP is just a fancier name for GP.

Agree with @Blue Dog -- PCP has recently taken on the meaning "Primary Care Provider" as opposed to "Primary Care Physician" and is regarded by most physicians in Primary Care (FM, IM, Peds, Ob/Gyn, ER) as a perjorative. I, for one, did not go to provider school -- I am not a commodity to be bought and sold at the whim of HR/Admin types who think that what I do/was trained to do as a profession can be repeated in an assembly line type of fashion aka cookbook medicine. I don't even use that term in conversation;

 

[SqEdSaint]

Most of us consider the term "PCP" a pejorative.

Why would you tell anyone you're a GP...?

Agree with @Blue Dog -- PCP has recently taken on the meaning "Primary Care Provider" as opposed to "Primary Care Physician" and is regarded by most physicians in Primary Care (FM, IM, Peds, Ob/Gyn, ER) as a perjorative. I, for one, did not go to provider school -- I am not a commodity to be bought and sold at the whim of HR/Admin types who think that what I do/was trained to do as a profession can be repeated in an assembly line type of fashion aka cookbook medicine. I don't even use that term in conversation;

Thanks, I'm a soon-to-be fm resident, now i know

 

[Ericslv]

So if i told regular people thats i'm a GP they would think i'm not board certified?
Would they know what a PCP is? Sorry stupid questions, but i always thought PCP is just a fancier name for GP.

Most people don't even know what board certified is. That's why the boards spend so much money advertising what it is so they can try to get people on their side and keep steeling your money.