Primary care physicians and nurse practitioners were both more inclined to recommend a career as a nurse practitioner, instead of as a doctor, within the field, according to a study published in December in the journal Academic Medicine. Only 46 percent of primary care physicians said they were very satisfied with their careers.
Even students interested in going to school to practice primary care – as a family physician or pediatrician, for example – may have hesitations about the profession.
"Students will go in excited about primary care and somewhere along the way that enthusiasm does get ?lost," says Carleen Eaton?, author of "Getting into Medical School for Dummies." "It would be important to be in an environment that’s really supportive of people going into primary care."
It's a tough field, experts say.
"There is a shortage of primary care physicians, and so the primary care physicians that exist are carrying heavy patient loads," says Eaton, who graduated from the Geffen School of Medicine at University of California—Los Angeles.
Specialty practices, in contrast, are often seen as more prestigious, and doctors in them usually receive a higher salary?, she says.
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Even with these challenges, many aspiring doctors are interested in primary care. In 2010, there were 109,048 internal medicine residents, a primary care doctor for adults; by 2013 there were 111,047,? according to the Association of American Medical ?Colleges. There was also a small increase ?in the number of U.S. seniors who matched with a family medicine? residency? in 2013, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.
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Medical school applicants who are trying to decide if an institution will best prepare them for work in primary care can examine certain aspects of a school's environment.
Barbara Sheline, director of the primary care leadership track at Duke University School of Medicine?, suggests prospective students find out how many graduates of the school they? are considering pursue a residency in primary care – but not just any kind of primary care residency.
Student may do residencies in internal medicine or pediatrics, which can be considered primary care professions, but people who do these residencies often pursue a subspecialty that's not a part of primary care.
Instead, Sheline says, prospective students should find out how many graduates go into family medicine residencies.
Family medicine doctors are only eligible for a few fellowships that may give them additional training – maybe in obstetrics, for example – but these fellowships generally keep doctors in primary care?, says Sheline, who's also the assistant dean for primary care at Duke's medical school.
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"If you have a lot of people going into family medicine then ?you know the school is putting out primary care docs," she says.
Some schools, such as Duke, says Sheline, may have few students going into primary care, but they have programs that support students who are interested in this field.
In Duke's primary care track, which matriculated its first students in 2011, students get to spend more time than most students learning about primary care. Many schools offer rotations in family medicine or pediatrics for a few weeks. "They’re working with primary care doctors for eight months," Sheline says
Other schools, such as Mercer University in Georgia and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Program, have a ?primary care track that allow students to graduate in three years. "It’s critical for us as a medical school to produce as many family physicians as possible," says Steven Berk, dean of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Program.
"Last year we had more students going into family medicine than any other specialty," he says.
Students in the track also receive a full scholarship? for their first year, Berk says. Schools that offer scholarships for studying primary care are likely invested in producing primary care doctors, Eaton says.
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An institution's administration can also tell prospective students how the school views primary care. Sheline suggests premed students see if the school has a dean or an assistant dean for primary care. "At least it shows somebody's paying attention to primary care," she says.
Clif Knight, vice president for education at the American Academy of Family Physicians, says aspiring doctors can also ask admissions officers "Are family physicians involved outside of their department in the medical school?"
If family physicians are also school leaders, such as deans, that may be an indicator of how much the school values primary care, he says. In addition to looking at who's running the school, medical school experts encourage prospective students to also consider what schools teach and how they teach it.
Knight suggests they ask ?"Are the primary care specialties integrated through the whole four-year medical school curriculum?" and "What will the clinical opportunities be to learn and get some hands-on? experience in primary care?"
For those that do find a school that meets their needs and turn primary care into a profession, it can be a rewarding field. One benefit can be the chance to build relationships with patients over time, says Sheline from Duke. It also gives doctors the opportunity to partner with patients while trying to improve their health.
"I love it," she says. "I wouldn’t be doing anything else."
source: http://www.usnews.com
