2. Primary care is the initial diagnosis and/or
treatment of a health-related problem found in
a patient1
Therefore, a primary care physician acts as the
first health professional to examine a patient
and recommends and refers the patient to the
appropriate secondary care provider (i.e
surgeon, nephrologist) if necessary
3. Most doctors and other health care providers in
the early American times treated all members of
families as best as they could, normally by going
out on house calls and checking on health status as
well as providing any acute care when needed2
(ex. Bleeding due to dog bite)
However, not every doctor was equal, as “witch doctors”
and others claimed magical powers led to their healing
Therefore, the American Medical Association
(AMA) and the American Board of Family
Medicine (ABFM, later AAFM) were created to
standardize the education of practitioners and
guarantee a certain standard of care for patients
4. Average pay for a Primary Care Physician is
around $186,000 and ranges from about
$140,000 to around $250,0003
While this is somewhat lower than the amount
of money one could make going into a
specialty area of medicine (ex. Osteopathic
surgeons make around $519,000), the average
income for a Primary Care Physician is in the
top 2% of income for US citizens3
5. The demand for primary
care providers been
increasing for years, and
with the Affordable Care Act
increasing the number of
people who are able to visit a
PCP, there is a large demand
for PCPs.
Family medicine and other
forms of primary care is one
of the most understaffed
specialties in the US, with
the AAMC seeing the
physician shortage in
America largely due to a
shortage in PCPs4
6. Most PCP physicians work either 7-5 or 8-5 days, and
have a somewhat more structured workday compared
to other specialties, as surgical professions such as an
OB/GYN need to be on call for longer hours in the
event of an unplanned surgery, for example
Patients seen per day range from 11-40, with an
average of 93.2 patients seen per week (approx. 19 per
day) spending around 22 minutes per patient
encounter
Recent healthcare reform (ACA) will most likely lead
to more patients seen by PCPs (and therefore less time
per patient encounter) due to more people visiting
their doctors and a finite amount of primary care
providers in the US5
7. Primary care has always interested me, from
my days visiting my pediatrician as a kid to
shadowing family practice physicians
Throughout my experiences, I believe that I
would be best suited to be a physician of
family medicine, due to my O*NET scoring as
well as my personal experiences
Therefore, I plan on going to medical school
and then residency for 3 years in order to reach
this goal
8. I believe that I would be a good PCP due to my
previous experiences looking into the
profession, and my O*Net scores correlate this
My 3 highest scores were in Social,
Investigative, and Realistic, respectively
Primary care physicians need to work well
socially, as they develop strong relationships
with their patients over years of time, so
scoring highest in the Social category can mean
that I would succeed in being a family
medicine physician
9. My second highest score was in Investigative,
which would work well with me being a family
doctor as a majority of primary care involves
investigating and determining the cause of an
illness or disease and either treating it on the spot
or sending a patient to a secondary care provider
Finally, my third highest score of Realistic would
be helpful as well, because determining the most
logical treatment plan for a patient as a family
doctor is crucial. For example, if I was able to
determine a significantly cheaper treatment option
for a patient as compared to, say, surgery, I would
be able to save my patient lots of time and money
in curing their disease
10. I have always been a person who enjoys
working with others, and holding positions in
both my fraternity as well as CU Water Drop, a
Clemson program that works to prevent
overconsumption of alcohol, are both examples
of my skill in social settings
I have also worked with children at a YMCA
summer camp for years, and my social skills
were present in dealing with children and their
parents
11. My investigative skills have been shown in
using research data that I have collected with
Water Drop to determine where and how
students at Clemson binge drink as well as
coming up with ways to combat this
Finally, my realistic skills have been honed
mainly through my various experiences
shadowing physicians. Learning how
physicians actually practice has been vital in
me becoming someone who looks at real-world
and practical applications for situations
12. Being a Health Science major at Clemson with a
competitive GPA (and hopefully a competitive
MCAT score by the end of the semester) will make
me a strong candidate to entering med school
Then, I will plan on completing my 4 years at
medical school and then going to residency at a
family practice for 3 years in order to become a
certified family medicine practitioner
Attending APEX at Columbia last summer as well
as taking care of my grandmother last summer as
she recovers from congestive heart failure are both
experiences that have made me feel like I would be
a strong family care physcian
13. Working as a primary care physician, and
specifically a family medicine physician, is a job
that I believe that I would enjoy and excel in, and
my O*Net scores are consistent with me being a
strong family medicine physician
While I will have to expect at least another 7 years
of schooling to reach this position, I believe that I
am willing to embark on this professional journey
to becoming a family medicine physcian, and the
fact that my O*Net scores corroborate this has
strengthen my resolve towards the long road that I
have ahead in working to being in this profession
