Role of Primary Care Physicians Practicing in Rural Areas?

[Jay2910]

Hey everyone,

I was just wondering . . .. how much do the roles of PCPs in rural areas really differ from those PCPs who are working in urban areas?

1) Is there anything that you do that is dramatically different when you are serving a rural area as a PCP? Do you get to do "everything"(ex: patient vitals, drawing blood, following up etc etc)?


2)Today, I see most of the nurses doing the vitals, taking blood samples, following up with patients in urban areas.
Since its the nurses that do those things in the urban area . . . .does it mean that, those things do not fall under the roles of a doctor anymore?

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[Jay2910]

What is wrong with the question above?

 

[Catalystik]

Just because you practice in a rural area doesn't mean you can't hire someone to help with support tasks. If you like taking vitals, drawing blood, counting out pills and labeling prescriptions, taking your own X-Rays, doing the bookkeeping, cleaning office spaces, you're more than welcome to do so. Depending on where you are, though (like how many hours from a city), you might be more likely to be a full-service doc: delivering babies, setting bones, doing some surgery.

 

[kyamh]

My mom was offered a very lucrative PCP position in rural Montana. She turned it down because she wasn't comfortable with the pressure of being the only person around who was qualified to intubate...guess she never quite got it 100% down in residency

With great money and wide open fields for your horses/goats/llamas comes stressful responsibility!

 

[masaraksh]

^ well, good thing there are probably not too many malpractice lawyers in middle of nowhere Montana.

"intubate...guess she never quite got it 100% down in residency "
Cue.. Intubate your mom jokes

 

[LizzyM]

Some physicians may not have the volume of patients to justify an assistant to draw blood, do EKGs, set up the exam rooms, etc. Some may like doing some of those tasks themselves as an other opportunity to observe the patient and gather valuable information, develop rapport, etc.

I would imagine that the bigger difference between rural and urban is that you don't have the specialist across the street (or just across town) to refer a patient to or to consult. As a PCP in a rural area you may do things that PCPs in the big city would refer to a specialist; it is hard to justify a 300 mile round trip to the city for that diagnostic test or procedure to a patient for whom such a trip would be a hardship.