Juddson, I see posts all the time about income in family medicine, is FM really that bad (in terms of hours worked vs. income generated) etc. These questions don't bother me although I usually don't read these type of threads anymore because I've been reading them for over 3 years now. But I remember when I was a medical student and it always seemed like it was taboo to ask these questions and the answers were always a secret. Websites like this are nice because you can ask the question in anonymity. As you all know, income depends on so many factors that it is hard to give an accurate answer. For me, yes I am happy with my income + signing bonus + benefits package. It is a little more than I expected, but probably average across the country. Although I started off in an emergency medicine residency and I can tell you my starting salary would have been a lot more if I would have stayed in emergency medicine
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Any medical students or interns who want to know exactly what I was offered can PM me and I will tell you. My reason for doing this is to give you a real life answer to the income question and to show you that you can make it in family medicine, have a good life, pay off loans, etc. I'll prefix the answer with this:
It's an employed position that requires 36 hours of direct patient care and 4 hours of administration time. Inpatient care is optional, (they have hospitalists) but i've elected to do so. 4 weeks vacation and 1 week CME. Call will be decided between my partner and I. I won't be doing any unusual procedure (i.e. colonoscopy) or OB. I think that's about it.
Oh, and Juddson, this entire post wasn't just for you because I realize you weren't asking in particular what I was offered, etc. So I don't want my reply to come off sounding bad. My point is that these questions are realistic and although we all went into medicine for altruistic reasons, income is important.
Dean
