There was a time when I I thought I would quit medicine. I was a medical student who didn’t love any one specialty more than others. However, discovering the field of family medicine opened my mind to endless career possibilities. So in this article, I will discuss the 5 reasons why Family Medicine (FM) was the perfect choice for me and why it may be the right choice for you.
If you are trying to decide if you should quit medicine, you may be thinking, why would I choose FM as a potential career? The pay is low in comparison to other specialties. They crank out 30 patients a day, day after day…
However, the field of Family Medicine is misunderstood. For one, did you know that FM doctors can train to do surgeries like C-sections? Did you know that FM physicians can work as hospitalists? I think that’s freaking awesome, and I hope you do too. If not, read the reasons why I chose family practice below.
1- I wanted to keep all my options open.
2- I didn’t see myself doing clinic work indefinitely.
3- I get the chance to practice medicine like Doc on the Little House on the Prairie.
4- I am not as concerned about encroachment by NPs and PAs or salary.
5- I would be addressing a dire need for primary care physicians.
1- I did not quit medicine because I wanted to keep all my options open.
Like many of my former classmates, I came to medical school set on becoming a surgeon. It’s one of the most advertised specialties of medicine next to Emergency Medicine. TV shows always depict surgeons like they are cowboys riding in to save the day. The benefit of a surgeon’s actions are readily observed. Patient has gallstones. Remove gallbladder and ta-da! No more gallstones.
However, I found the lifestyle very restrictive. I wasn’t comforted by the notion that I should give up 6 plus years of my life doing 80-100 hours per week training with reassurance that it will get better as an attending. And I was told several times that I should only do surgery if it’s the only thing I could see myself doing in medicine. It wasn’t.
I liked counseling patients on diet and exercise, helping patients cope with anxiety, delivering babies, spotting fractures on plain film, and even inpatient medicine (minus the absurdly long morning rounds). Moreover, I couldn’t see myself giving up what I love to do outside of medicine to become a surgeon.
And I had to consider when I would want to get married and start a family among other things. For me, time was the most precious thing that I had, and I was not willing to give that up doing something that wasn’t everything to me. So clinical year for me was an eye-opening experience because I realized that I had no desire to actually become a specialist in medicine.
With family practice, I got to keep all my options open. First off, my FM training only lasted three years. I didn’t go this route, but there are many fellowship options that exist after doing an FM residency. Check out the American Academy of Family Medicine’s comprehensive directory of fellowships that allows you to search by state. There’s sleep medicine, OB, palliative/hospice, sports medicine, HIV, addiction, mental health or hospital medicine. I can rest easy knowing that I can change my mind even after residency. This leads me to point number 2.
2- I didn’t see myself doing clinic work indefinitely.
While I consider myself people-oriented, I never saw myself working in a clinic or hospital indefinitely. I consider my biggest passion to be quite simply problem-solving. I like thinking of things on a larger scale than clinical medicine sometimes affords. When I looked at what fields were the most agreeable to transforming my career to include areas outside of medicine, I found that typically primary care specialties like FM led the charge.
3- I did not quit medicine because as an FM doctor, I get the chance to practice medicine like Doc on the Little House on the Prairie
For those born in the ‘80s and maybe early 90s, I’m sure you’ve seen Little House on the Prairie or similar shows where it’s a small town with only one doctor. Doc makes house calls, delivers babies, and cares for the elderly. On these old school tv shows, the doctor really did it all. And that’s what attracted me to medicine in the first place. Their role was so integral to the well-being of the community, and I admired that.
I love that family medicine is a specialty that is holding on to the traditional model of what doctors can be for the community. FM doctors often have a strong presence in their patients’ lives in and out of the clinic, especially if they practice rural medicine. Not many other professions can have that lifelong presence in their patients’ lives.
4- I am not as concerned about encroachment by NPs and PAs or salary.
I know there is a lot of talk about the increasing independence of nurse practitioners and physician assistants. While I understand that doctors are mainly concerned about patient safety, I must say that most primary care physicians that I have interacted with have not been as concerned about it.
I think the team dynamic is just so crucial in an outpatient setting because of how fast-paced it is. I mean seeing a new patients every 15 minutes requires everyone to make as few mistakes as possible or else the clinic will fall seriously behind schedule. Basically, I like the camaraderie I’ve seen in FM clinics.
And as for salary, primary care folks want to be well-compensated, sure. However, it’s not at the top of their list in terms of what is going to fulfill them most in life. Besides, starting salaries out of residency these days are about $250,000, approximately 5x the median household income in the US!
5- As an FM doctor, I would be addressing a dire need for primary care physicians – a major reason I didn’t quit medicine.
Last but not least, there is a dire need for more family medicine physicians in the United States. I’m sure you know that we have a doctor shortage in this country that will likely get worse within the next decade as boomers age and require more medical attention. What better way to meet this need than to train a new generation of doctors who can see all age groups.
FM doctors would be great hospitalists with that in-mind. And they would be able to transition to outpatient care for those recently discharged patients. I mean this concept isn’t new. It was more common in the past; however, it seems FM doctors have now been mainly relegated to the outpatient setting.
Still, if you choose FM, the option would exist for you to deliver babies, work as a hospitalist, work in a clinic, and participate in public health. Because of the breadth of my training and the endless possibilities open to me after residency, I am way more relaxed about the trajectory of my career.
In Summary
So perhaps you should not quit medicine. If you want to know 100% that what you are doing is of the utmost importance without feeling like you are trapped doing one thing for your entire career, why not check out family medicine! Next up, So You Want to Quit Medicine II. And if you are still confused, check out Quit Medicine? Your Ultimate Guide to Making a Decision. Finally, if you have already been down this past hundreds of times over and think you may need some extra guidace, check out Should a Medical Student Hire a Life Coach.