This post is a conversation with an anonymous PGY-1 family medicine resident, as part of our interview series with residents across various medical specialties to help medical students decide which path is right for them. Let’s dive in!
For a side-by-side comparison of each medical specialty, check out this FREE Medical Specialties Breakdown download including required exam scores, salaries, and more!
What is your favorite part of family medicine?
That you can take care of an entire family! All the way from newborn babies to the elderly—you can do it all. I LOVE that you get to be part of the lives of your patients and sometimes entire families. I really love that longitudinal care—I rotated with older family medicine physicians who were seeing the same patients for 35 years!
I also love how family physicians are the first place that patients go if they are worried or concerned about something (unless going to the ED for an emergency). I enjoy being able to explain to patients what might be going on so they have a better understanding of their own health and either reassure them, work them up, or refer them to someone else as needed.
What is your least favorite part of family medicine?
Family medicine is not as competitive of a specialty and sometimes I felt disrespected by my fellow medical students when I told them I wanted to pursue family medicine. I would hear comments in my first two years of medical school like, “Oh it’s fine if you don’t do well on Step 1, you can just do family medicine.”
Personally, I did well in medical school and scored highly on my both Step 1 and Step 2. Having a primary care physician is important and family medicine physicians train for three years of residency to be able to care for patients. All fields of medicine are valuable and necessary, regardless of how competitive the residency positions are.
Your happiness is the *most important thing* when finding your path in medicine. For more guidance on how to find the specialty that’s right for you (regardless of how competitive it is), check out this other post, Finding Your Calling: A Guide to Choosing a Specialty Beyond Competition 💙
Were you considering any other specialties?
Nope. I wanted to go to medical school since volunteering at family practice clinics during high school and undergrad. I felt most at home in a clinic, and didn’t enjoy surgery or inpatient rotations during medical school.
While you still have to rotate through these services during family medicine residency and they are valuable for learning, I always saw myself becoming an outpatient family medicine physician. I absolutely love it!
Was there anything about family medicine residency that surprised you?
All the different rotations we have to do! I love being in clinic—that’s what I want to do for the rest of my career. So when I started medical school, I thought my residency would all be completely in clinic (I didn’t know much about residency or medical school in general when I first started).
But you actually have to rotate through all sorts of specialties during family medicine residency, too! Emergency medicine, inpatient pediatrics, inpatient internal medicine, OB/GYN etc. I didn’t expect that, but I love learning and all of these rotations are essential to being a good outpatient family physician.
Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?
I see myself being a PCP in a medically underserved area. I myself grew up in this type of setting and so it’s important for me to care for populations with lower health literacy and access to care. I want to set up community health education programs so that people can learn how to prevent, identify and manage certain conditions (think diabetes or hypertension management/prevention sessions in free clinics).
I also hope to be involved in advocacy at the state level for programs that provide increased access to care—I’ve already started learning a bit about this and hope to continue.
Want to hear more from other residents across various medical specialties? Check out these other interviews on the Blueprint Med School blog!
