Is family medicine training good preparation for a career in - TopicsExpress

Is family medicine training good preparation for a career in international medicine,frontier or wilderness medicine, or emergency care? Family physicians receive broad medical training that prepares them to care for patients in a wide range of settings. With good training, family physicians are competent to practice in a large hospital with many health care resources or in an international or wilderness environment where resources may be scarce. Americans in rural areas depend on family physicians to deliver care in the communities and remote locations in which they live and work. The geographic distribution of family physicians is similar to that of the U.S. population: 24 percent of the population lives in communities of fewer than 10,000 persons, and 23 percent of family physicians practice in such communities. Without family physicians, many U.S. counties would be health professional shortage areas (HPSAs)—geographic areas, population groups, or medical facilities that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services determines to be served by too few health professionals of particular specialties. If all family physicians were withdrawn, 58 percent of U.S. counties would become primary care HPSAs (PCHPSAs); in contrast, only 8 percent of counties would be PCHPSAs if all general internists, pediatricians, and obstetrician-gynecologists were withdrawn.25 Among physicians working in U.S. emergency departments, approximately 30 percent completed family medicine residencies.