Primary Care: The Better Career Choice?

A series of articles this week in the New England Journal of Medicine discusses the need for the "reinvention" of primary care. This series focuses on the training, practice, compensation and overall reform of primary care. Many American medical graduates are choosing to pursue "controllable lifestyle" fields such as anesthesiology, radiology and emergency medicine, to name a few, because of higher compensation and the perception that these fields will enable them to achieve a better work/life balance.

Interestingly, some (currently unpublished) data presented at the Association of American Medical Colleges earlier this month might change students' minds. In a survey of practicing physicians over 50, a higher percentage of primary care physicians felt they had control over their lives versus practicing physicians in the "controllable lifestyle" fields.

With attention being placed on the need for primary care reform, salaries will likely increase in the future for primary care clinicians. With the potential for better compensation combined with a healthy work/life balance and the opportunity to provide care where it is needed most, hopefully more students will explore career options in primary care.

Click Here to access the series.

I provide mentoring for medical school, residency and fellowship applicants. Visit: www.MedEdits.com.