Family medicine is a medical specialty that primarily focuses on offering comprehensive care to an individual and their family. A family doctor provides care for all family members, cutting across all age brackets.
Family practitioners are the first point of contact after the occurrence of sudden flu symptoms, severe joint pains, headaches, and many more. Additionally, they come in handy when dealing with emergency calls and when treating people with underlying conditions.
So, as a student aspiring to practice family medicine, you should understand a few basic things.
Here are the finer details.
- You need to pass the Family Medicine Board Exam
Passing the Family Medicine Board Exam is a vital step in shaping your career as a family doctor. To ensure this, you need to cover AAFP board review questions that touch on a variety of topics, including but are not limited to reproductive health, respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and musculoskeletal. It is not until the successful completion and achieving a board certification that you can be a certified family practitioner doctor.
- You are treating the whole person
Family doctors nurture some patients from a tender age until they are adults. Some adults are treated over an entire lifespan. As such, when you are looking to venture into family medicine, you need to be ready to handle the same patients for longer periods. You need to be more than a doctor, be a friend, and offer a support system throughout the time they need you.
- You are not limited to specific diseases or conditions
Family doctors are well-versed in a variety of illnesses and conditions. They possess the necessary knowledge to treat a plethora of common ailments.
As a family doctor, you will not base your specialty on specific conditions. You will also be required to offer preventive health care to your patients, among other things.
- You will treat people of all ages
Pediatricians dedicate their medical practice career to children. However, with family doctors, you will be required to treat both the young and old. You need to know how to give vaccinations to infants as well as handle common infections in children. On the other hand, patients expect you also to understand age-related issues. The elderly, most of whom have underlying medical conditions, will need your care and support.
- You should be detail-oriented
One of the most critical traits of family doctors is being detail-oriented. Paying attention to all the tiny details in relation to the diet, medical history, and treatment of the patient makes all the difference in the quality of medical care offered.
Treatment of patients involves the prescription of specific dosages. In some cases, it consists of the undertaking of detailed procedures. Without attention to detail, medical errors might occur, which might have severe implications in the patient’s life. As such, if you are considering exploring a career in family medicine, attention to detail is a necessary skill you need to have.