Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

Why family medicine was the best choice for me

Anoop Raman, MD, MBA
Education
May 3, 2013
27 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share

When I came to medical school, I was certain I wanted to do primary care.  Despite the forces that steer many of us off the path – how many times have we heard, “but you’re too smart to do primary care!”? – after three years of medical school, I was still committed to primary care.

But I struggled with which type of program would be best for me. I applied to both family medicine and internal medicine programs in primary care.  After my third year, I loved the patient-centered approach to family medicine—the now clichéd mantra within primary care circles of seeing the patient as “a whole.”  But I also loved the rigor of internal medicine, the process of forming deep differentials, and the robust understanding of pathophysiology that often made itself evident during morning rounds and afternoon conferences.

It was only after sub-internships in both specialties that it became abundantly evident that family medicine was the best choice for me.  My tilt towards family medicine happened on three levels: philosophical, practical and personal.

Philosophically, I believe that family medicine is the best platform for delivering primary care.  People live in families and communities, and rarely do illnesses affect only one person.  Patients often come to the doctor with family members, and thus building trust by treating the entire family, offering anticipatory guidance to family members when they come as patients as well as caregivers, and better understanding the dynamics at home through multiple visits are powerful assets when delivering primary care as a family physician.  When that primary care for the family is fragmented through multiple physician practices, the benefits of hi-touch primary care can be lost.

Practically, I found that most family medicine residents spend nearly 50 percent of patient-care time in the outpatient setting.  Meanwhile, most internal medicine primary care residents typically spend 20 to 25 percent of their time in outpatient care.  It’s more important for me to become well-versed in the bread and butter outpatient procedures I hope to perform as a physician—incision and drainage procedures, freezing warts, osteopathic manipulations for back pain, mole biopsies—than in thoracenteses or floating swan catheters, procedures that I think are incredibly cool but that I would likely never perform post-residency.

Moreover, if I am honest with myself, as much as I love primary care, it can get boring and tedious at times like any other field of medicine. Treating diabetes, correcting hypertension, recommending lifestyle changes, and screening for depression are undoubtedly some of the most important things a primary care physician can do. Yet my role models in primary care have fought the tedium that can set in by maintaining their breadth of practice—treating adults with chronic conditions of course, but also performing prenatal care and sprinkling their day with the joys of well-baby check ups.  As a primary care doctor, it seems as though the vitality of one’s practice is often proportional to the breadth of one’s practice.

Personally, I will likely not be a full-time primary care physician practicing medicine in the U.S. all my life.  I foresee my career taking me abroad again one day.   In settings of poverty, the broad tool set that family medicine provides – the ability to take care of children, pregnant women and sick adults confidently – is invaluable. Working with family physicians in rural India, it was exhilarating (and exhausting) to see them move seamlessly from the pediatric ward, OB ward, and adult medicine wards with ease each morning, and then see patients of all ages in clinic in the afternoon.

Finally, as we all know, the health care system in this country is broken, especially, when it comes to the coordination of care.  Personally, I believe the broad clinical training one receives in family medicine, as well as the strong new emphasis many family medicine residencies are placing on team-based care, uniquely positions family doctors to help lead the revolution that is stealthily underway in primary care.

Anoop Raman is a medical student who blogs at Primary Care Progress.

Prev

Treating obesity: Comfort, affliction, and confusion

May 3, 2013 Kevin 6
…
Next

When should drivers retire from driving?

May 3, 2013 Kevin 4
…

Tagged as: Medical school, Primary Care

Post navigation

< Previous Post
Treating obesity: Comfort, affliction, and confusion
Next Post >
When should drivers retire from driving?

More by Anoop Raman, MD, MBA

  • a desk with keyboard and ipad with the kevinmd logo

    A new buzz around primary care

    Anoop Raman, MD, MBA
  • a desk with keyboard and ipad with the kevinmd logo

    New skill sets are raising the prestige of primary care

    Anoop Raman, MD, MBA
  • a desk with keyboard and ipad with the kevinmd logo

    The resurgent interest in primary care

    Anoop Raman, MD, MBA

More in Education

  • Improving medical specialty selection with pre-training examinations

    Deepak Gupta, MD and Sarwan Kumar, MD
  • The erosion of compassion in medicine

    Daniel Luger, MD
  • Decoding doctor designations: the crucial need to ditch the “provider” label

    Austin Miller
  • September in medicine: scouting season for future doctors

    Stephen J. Foley
  • From medical humanities student to physician

    Nicholas Bellacicco, DO
  • How Tratak yoga reshaped my USMLE Step 2 prep

    Dr. Nikita Mehdiratta
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Health care’s hidden problem: hospital primary care losses

      Christopher Habig, MBA | Policy
    • From fishing licenses to gun control

      Mitch Bruss, MD | Policy
    • The dark role of science, medicine, and tasers

      L. Joseph Parker, MD | Physician
    • World AIDS Day 2023: Remember and commit

      Toyin M. Falusi, MD | Conditions
    • A doctor struggles to provide mental health care in Appalachia

      Ryan McCarthy, MD | Physician
    • Tackling health care conflicts and stereotyping

      Deepak Gupta, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Medicare coverage saves lives. Enrolling shouldn’t be this complicated.

      Catherine L. Chen, MD, MPH | Physician
    • Emergency department burnout: a cry for change

      Anonymous | Conditions
    • The erosion of compassion in medicine

      Daniel Luger, MD | Education
    • Pain medicine realities: beyond the opioid crisis

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD and Stephen E. Nadeau, MD | Conditions
    • Health care’s hidden problem: hospital primary care losses

      Christopher Habig, MBA | Policy
    • What we have to gain from weight loss drugs

      Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian | Conditions
  • Recent Posts

    • A doctor struggles to provide mental health care in Appalachia

      Ryan McCarthy, MD | Physician
    • Burnout on the U.S.S. Enterprise

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Conditions
    • The toll of health care: suicide risk among professionals

      Michele Luckenbaugh | Conditions
    • Breaking free from metric shaming [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Physicians are burned out. Could entrepreneurship be a cure?

      Arun Mohan, MD, MBA | Physician
    • The dark role of science, medicine, and tasers

      L. Joseph Parker, MD | Physician

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 1 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

CME Spotlights

From MedPage Today

Latest News

  • ChatGPT Takes on the Neuro Boards
  • CDC Urges Clinicians to Be Aware of Potential Clade I Mpox Cases From DRC
  • Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissections: Treatment Recommendations Still Unheeded
  • Why Is a Disgraced Surgeon Back in the News?
  • Prenatal RSV Infection Linked to Fetal Inflammation, Poorer Growth

Meeting Coverage

  • Study Supports ADC as a New Option for Endocrine-Resistant Metastatic Breast Cancer
  • Maintenance Pembrolizumab-Olaparib Fails to Boost Survival in TNBC
  • Mobile Unit Preferred for Buprenorphine Access
  • Study 'Underscores' Value of Early Fertility Counseling for Breast Cancer Patients
  • Adding Immunotherapy to Neoadjuvant Chemo Boosts pCR in HR-Positive Breast Cancer
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Health care’s hidden problem: hospital primary care losses

      Christopher Habig, MBA | Policy
    • From fishing licenses to gun control

      Mitch Bruss, MD | Policy
    • The dark role of science, medicine, and tasers

      L. Joseph Parker, MD | Physician
    • World AIDS Day 2023: Remember and commit

      Toyin M. Falusi, MD | Conditions
    • A doctor struggles to provide mental health care in Appalachia

      Ryan McCarthy, MD | Physician
    • Tackling health care conflicts and stereotyping

      Deepak Gupta, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Medicare coverage saves lives. Enrolling shouldn’t be this complicated.

      Catherine L. Chen, MD, MPH | Physician
    • Emergency department burnout: a cry for change

      Anonymous | Conditions
    • The erosion of compassion in medicine

      Daniel Luger, MD | Education
    • Pain medicine realities: beyond the opioid crisis

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD and Stephen E. Nadeau, MD | Conditions
    • Health care’s hidden problem: hospital primary care losses

      Christopher Habig, MBA | Policy
    • What we have to gain from weight loss drugs

      Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian | Conditions
  • Recent Posts

    • A doctor struggles to provide mental health care in Appalachia

      Ryan McCarthy, MD | Physician
    • Burnout on the U.S.S. Enterprise

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Conditions
    • The toll of health care: suicide risk among professionals

      Michele Luckenbaugh | Conditions
    • Breaking free from metric shaming [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Physicians are burned out. Could entrepreneurship be a cure?

      Arun Mohan, MD, MBA | Physician
    • The dark role of science, medicine, and tasers

      L. Joseph Parker, MD | Physician

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Why family medicine was the best choice for me
1 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...