Medicine
November 15, 1998
- Rpap Is Smart And Has Been For Forty Years
Academics love innovation, new grants, and change. A weakness of academic focus is doing what works - practical and relevant. Academics often have to be forced to do the practical and relevant. Such is the case with RPAP. The Rural Physician Associates...
- Strengthening The Primary Care Pipeline
Recently, I had a vivid dream in which I and several family physician colleagues had gathered in a lecture hall to watch the results of the National Residency Match on a huge real-time video screen. On the right side of the screen were the names of all...
- 9/11
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was a family medicine intern making rounds at a teaching hospital in Pennsylvania. As I started writing a progress note on one of my patients, my senior resident emerged from the next room with tears streaming down...
- The Road Less Traveled Or Why Don’t Med Students Choose Primary Care?
A recent article in AcademicMedicine by Kimberly Clinite and colleagues (1) is an important addition to the growing body of literature around specialty choice. For those of you who are not familiar with the subject, let me give you a bit of background....
- Christmas Gift
On Christmas morning as we were opening presents with our kids and family, I got to thinking about how lucky I am. I really don't know how I got into medical school. I grew up in a pretty modest home. These days you would have called us poor. At...
Medicine
The importance of mentors in family medicine
Saying that my medical alma mater, NYU School of Medicine, isn't known as a school that produces family physicians is a gross understatement. Actually, it routinely ranks last in the nation in the number of students matching to Family Medicine residency programs. My class of 2001, which sent 4 students to such programs, was a one-time aberration.
So how did I get started in family medicine? I give a great deal of credit to the Reading Hospital and Medical Center, which allowed me to do an elective rotation in their residency program from June through July 2000. But what inspired me to look into family medicine rotations in the first place? I recently came across a 13-year old letter I wrote to my cousin's husband (then a family medicine resident training in Minnesota) that gives part of the answer, and speaks to the vital importance of finding mentors for medical students who are interested in primary care careers.
**
Dear Daniel,
I hope that life in Minnesota has been treating you well! So far I have been enjoying the second year of medical school at NYU. The classes have been much more interesting than last year’s, and while I still have a long way to go, I’m slowly beginning to believe that I might someday know enough to take care of patients.
Last month we had a speaker come to talk about rotations and residencies in Family Medicine, and that made me wonder how you were doing. Is this the first or second year of residency? How do you like it? How many years are left to go? Where (geographically and what kind of community) do you plan on practicing after it’s over?
Since I haven’t even started my clerkships, I don’t really know which field interests me most, but since NYU doesn’t have a Department of Family Medicine, I thought it might be a good idea to gather information from outside sources that I know I can trust. I’ve spent several summers working with children, so the natural choice would seem to be pediatrics, but I would love to hear your perspectives on taking care of families while raising one of your own.
Have a wonderful holiday season, and best wishes to you and the kids.
**
Thank you, Dan.
- Rpap Is Smart And Has Been For Forty Years
Academics love innovation, new grants, and change. A weakness of academic focus is doing what works - practical and relevant. Academics often have to be forced to do the practical and relevant. Such is the case with RPAP. The Rural Physician Associates...
- Strengthening The Primary Care Pipeline
Recently, I had a vivid dream in which I and several family physician colleagues had gathered in a lecture hall to watch the results of the National Residency Match on a huge real-time video screen. On the right side of the screen were the names of all...
- 9/11
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was a family medicine intern making rounds at a teaching hospital in Pennsylvania. As I started writing a progress note on one of my patients, my senior resident emerged from the next room with tears streaming down...
- The Road Less Traveled Or Why Don’t Med Students Choose Primary Care?
A recent article in AcademicMedicine by Kimberly Clinite and colleagues (1) is an important addition to the growing body of literature around specialty choice. For those of you who are not familiar with the subject, let me give you a bit of background....
- Christmas Gift
On Christmas morning as we were opening presents with our kids and family, I got to thinking about how lucky I am. I really don't know how I got into medical school. I grew up in a pretty modest home. These days you would have called us poor. At...