Is primary care competitive by location?

[Doctora Foxy]

I am very interested in primary care right now (I'll be entering med school this Fall). Is primary care very competitive if you are looking to be in a certain location? For now, I'm interested in South Florida.

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, I just want some idea of what I'll be up against. Historically, my standardized test scores were not way above average, so I'm already worried about being hindered by the USMLE.

Gracias.

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[halothane]

I tell you the whole thing is a cycle.....no matter what speciality you choose you'll still make a decent living as a doc. As to wether primary is gonna get comp. no one knows. 5 years back nobody wanted to touch Anesth. now it looks like it is headed the radiology way. Just get thro medschool and decide when you hit your clinical rotations. About USMLE...over 90% US grads pass...you too will. Take it easy.

 

[Whisker Barrel Cortex]

Hey Foxy,

Halothane is right about the cycles, but primary care, as far as I know, has never been very competitive, even when it was popular 5-6 years ago. The reason it will never be that hard to find a good spot is because there are a lot family practice, internal medicine, and pediatrics positions. Even back in the heyday of FP, only 90% of the 3100 positions filled (straight from "FPreport").

So I wouldn't worry about it too much. Also, as a medical student you are exposed to many other specialties that you now know little about and to the realities of specialties such as FP and peds. Many people who started off thinking they would go into a primary care specialty end up choosing something else. I thought I'd do primary care and will be doing radiology, about as different as you can get.