Myth #1: Family medicine isn’t challenging and exciting.
It absolutely is!! Family Medicine docs are diverse. We have solo practices and work in large academic centers. We work as hospitalists, take emergency medicine shifts, deliver babies and perform C-sections, see patients at hospice facilities, and/or make home visits. We perform procedures and minor surgeries in addition to providing excellent preventive medicine. We are researchers, educators, leaders, hospital administrators, innovators and change agents. I’d say it’s highly meaningful and amazing work!
More examples: our own UACOM-Phx Family Medicine faculty include a vice dean and former president of the Arizona Medical Association, a clinical informatics fellowship director, a member of the Unites States Preventive Services Task Force, a former executive medicine provider, and so many other very prestigious job descriptions!
Myth #2: You will only have 5 minutes per patient and see 40 patients a day.
Although some clinics have this type of schedule, a significant number do not. I work at a clinic that caps total numbers at 20, and I spend 20-40 minutes with each patient. With current trends toward pay-for-performance, visit times will likely need to increase across the board.
A 2015 physician compensation report (19,500 physicians in 25 specialties) demonstrated that 75% of family medicine physicians spend >12 minutes with each patient, with 20% spending 20 minutes or more [1]. As a physician, don’t forget that you have options—vote with your feet and find, negotiate or create a patient care environment that is in keeping with your values.
Myth #3: You won’t get paid “enough.”
First, let me challenge the premise. How much is “enough?” Studies show that Americans who earn more (e.g., in some studies, > $60,000 a year) are not incrementally happier proportional to higher salaries (known to economists for some time as the “Easterlin Paradox”) [2].
The aforementioned 2015 physician compensation report demonstrated that family medicine salaries were up 10% compared to 2014 [1]. Also, it matters where you practice geographically, with some primary care physicians (especially in rural settings) earning substantially more than some subspecialists.
Bottom line: choose the specialty you love and provide the best patient care you can. You will earn “enough” (as long as you don’t overspend—which doesn’t lead to happiness anyway!).
Myth # 4: Subspecialists provide “better” care.
The Starfield report was a landmark study that provided strong evidence for the value of primary care, such as the fact that if a patient has a primary care provider, the cost of their healthcare tends to be approximately 33% lower, and the risk of dying is 19% lower than for those who see only a subspecialist for care of their disease [1].
This study and others like it have fueled the recent reawakening of our country to the need for a strong primary care base if our country is to have a healthcare system, not just a “sick care” system.
- Kane, L., and C. Peckham. “Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2015.” WebMD (2014).
Weimann, Joachim, Andreas Knabe, and Ronnie Schöb. Measuring happiness: the economics of well-being. MIT Press, 2015. - Starfield, Barbara, Leiyu Shi, and James Macinko. “Contribution of primary care to health systems and health.” Milbank quarterly 83.3 (2005): 457-502.
Dr. Hartmark-Hill is a Mayo Clinic-trained family medicine physician who works as full-time faculty at The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and sees patients at the Cholla Clinic (an FQHC underserved medicine clinic). She also serves as the medical director of Student Health Outreach for Wellness (SHOW), an interprofessional student-run free clinic. She completed her MD (and a year-long faculty development fellowship) through The University of Arizona College of Medicine. Her hobbies include watching stand-up comedy, reading (especially travelogues), hiking and camping in Arizona, urban farming (raised bed gardens and five chickens), and spending time with her wonderful husband, four sweet rescue dogs, and two plotting cats.