Why does family practice even exist?

[TriagePreMed]

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[cubssox2000]

Have you shadowed any of those three specialties? When you do you'll realize that they are all different in their focus, especially the broadness of their approaches to their patients. FPs get trained in nearly everything (IM, Peds, Ob/Gyn, some surgery). They cover pretty much any and everything, and they are especially important in rural areas, where a pediatrician or geriatrician might not be available.

 

[VikingLegacy]

baleeted

 

[Kaustikos]

Uh, Antibiotic Pez Despensers?

 

[seelee]

Uh, Antibiotic Pez Despensers?

How else are you going to inform the patient which specialist they need to see?

 

[apumic]

It seems with Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, the work of family practice can be covered. Wouldn't it be wiser to put all the FP resources into making more IM and P programs or dual programs?

Is this even a serious question?


If you have to ask this question, I'd suggest walking into a hospital sometime soon and ask someone to show you around. As was mentioned, shadowing these specialties will answer your question. This is akin to asking, "Why do trauma surgeons even exist? It seems like with ER Doctors and Neurosurgeons you pretty much have all emergencies covered."

 

[Rendar5]

Is this even a serious question?


If you have to ask this question, I'd suggest walking into a hospital sometime soon and ask someone to show you around. As was mentioned, shadowing these specialties will answer your question. This is akin to asking, "Why do trauma surgeons even exist? It seems like with ER Doctors and Neurosurgeons you pretty much have all emergencies covered."

or asking why EM doctors exist since you can just create an emergency room with every possible specialist and a triage nurse to take you to each one.

 

[sideways]

or asking why EM doctors exist since you can just create an emergency room with every possible specialist and a triage nurse to take you to each one.

Not a bad idea.

 

[alwaysaangel]

As somebody whose clinical experience is distributed evenly between private family practice, rural medicine and Indian health, my answer is that if you're asking that question, you've never seen a real family practice before.

^^^^ This.

I liked the way a doctor once explained it to me. Family medicine doctors are specialized in their patients. They know all aspects of their patients health best (if they do what they are supposed to) and incorporate it into one care plan that works best for the patient.

If you live in an urban area you probably see the true purpose less because there are so many specialties and so many patients that FM docs can't fulfill their original purpose as well. But FM is essential outside of most urban areas.

 

[Kaustikos]

Not a bad idea.

Isn't that what....they pretty much did in the past? Until they started with this EM Physician?

 

[TFS]

Have you shadowed any of those three specialties? When you do you'll realize that they are all different in their focus, especially the broadness of their approaches to their patients. FPs get trained in nearly everything (IM, Peds, Ob/Gyn, some surgery). They cover pretty much any and everything, and they are especially important in rural areas, where a pediatrician or geriatrician might not be available.

+1. trauma too

 

[drizzt3117]

they're asking a rhetorical question to
tell you that you're an idiot in a veiled way. Personally I think such subtlety is unnecessary.

Yes, it is a serious question. And no, I don't find it akin to saying EM shouldn't exist because you can have every specialty in the OR or that a trauma surgeon can be replaced by ER and Neurosurgery.

If you guys don't have an answer, don't answer the question. Obviously I haven't shadowed the specialty. Why would you ask that if it's obvious? And yes, it is obvious I could go shadow it, but I'm asking here. A lot of you guys are such pseudointellectuals it's not even funny. "Oh, you don't know this? pfft, silly you. I do!"

 

[45408]

It's nice to not have three doctors when you could have one. If you're young and healthy, you probably don't need a specialist for most of your problems.

 

[Jolie South]

In my limited exposure to both IM and FP, FPs tend to be more focused on ambulatory care with a wider base of knowledge that includes OB, geriatrics, and peds. They literally can take care of the whole family.

IM seems more skewed to inpatient care, not that there aren't IM doctors that do outpatient only. I'd say they're not as procedurally oriented and they just deal with adults. IM is also a springboard to subspecialization that doesn't exist in the FP world.

 

[cubssox2000]

Yes, it is a serious question. And no, I don't find it akin to saying EM shouldn't exist because you can have every specialty in the OR or that a trauma surgeon can be replaced by ER and Neurosurgery.

If you guys don't have an answer, don't answer the question. Obviously I haven't shadowed the specialty. Why would you ask that if it's obvious? And yes, it is obvious I could go shadow it, but I'm asking here. A lot of you guys are such pseudointellectuals it's not even funny. "Oh, you don't know this? pfft, silly you. I do!"

Look, if you had asked the exact same question a little differently, you probably would have gotten less snide remarks. If you had said "Hey, I'm interested in IM and FM, can you tell me the difference", we would have been more open to it. Coming on here and saying "let's get rid of a specialty" is not going to fly.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Look, if you had asked the exact same question a little differently, you probably would have gotten less snide remarks. If you had said "Hey, I'm interested in IM and FM, can you tell me the difference", we would have been more open to it. Coming on here and saying "let's get rid of a specialty" is not going to fly.

Agree. If you're going to ask questions on an internet forum you either need to pay attention to your wording or take the snide remarks (and I didn't even make any so I'm not making excuses).

Your title wording of "Why does FP even exist" was inflammatory. Whether you intended it to be or not.

 

[drizzt3117]

At this pt FPs pretty much do geriatrics, peds, adult health maintainance, the occasional hospitalist work, ob (labor and delivery, no c/s) and gynecology. A lot to squeeze into a three year residency...

 

[morning]

Wait til you discover med/peds. Your head is gonna EXPLODE.

 

[smq123]

Part of the problem is that FP doesn't just equal medicine + pediatrics. Neither medicine nor pediatrics does any OB, and very little GYN. They don't spend any time with general surgeons or doing sports medicine/ortho. They have somewhat less outpatient clinic time, which requires its own unique skill set.

True, but I'm thinking along the lines of: If you're a child, go to a pediatrician. Once you grow up, you can see either someone in internal medicine or someone in OB/GYN if those are your needs. The idea of family doctors being primarily necessary for rural settings is spot on and the type of explanation I was looking for.

Here's the problem with "if you're a kid go to a pediatrician; when you grow up go to IM."

If you're a kid who happened to have chronic diseases, or were born premature, an internal medicine physician might not be aware of that, and might not know how that affects the way that you developed. Plus, most kids, when they graduate from their pediatrician, don't realize that they SHOULD continue to see a doctor, so they often don't.

At this pt FPs pretty much do geriatrics, peds, adult health maintainance, the occasional hospitalist work, ob (labor and delivery, no c/s) and gynecology. A lot to squeeze into a three year residency...

Some FPs do, in fact, do c-sections.

 

[45408]

True, but I'm thinking along the lines of: If you're a child, go to a pediatrician. Once you grow up, you can see either someone in internal medicine or someone in OB/GYN if those are your needs. The idea of family doctors being primarily necessary for rural settings is spot on and the type of explanation I was looking for.

If you're a woman, you might not want to have a pediatrician, an OB, and an internist. As a father, I like having the same doctor as my son (and I did, until I moved for residency).

 

[45408]

Some FPs do, in fact, do c-sections.

Seen it once (in person). Kind of scary.

 

[smq123]

Seen it once (in person). Kind of scary.

Yeah, I know. And I'm not thrilled at the prospect of having to do a fellowship to get more c/s numbers. But until rural area women stop having babies (and not infrequently macrosomic babies), then, well.... (shrug)

 

[Kaustikos]

Yeah, I know. And I'm not thrilled at the prospect of having to do a fellowship to get more c/s numbers. But until rural area women stop having babies (and not infrequently macrosomic babies), then, well.... (shrug)

Seriously. More condoms are NEEDED