Neon vs. Benz

VS.



Which would you rather be?

Today one of my surgery attendings informed me that family doctors are like Dodge Neons and specialists are like Mercedes Benzs. He believes as do most Americans that the health care system has to change, but he feels specialists are the way to go. Because if we rely moe on primary care physicians then the standard of care will have to go down. The American people will have to be willing to accept a lower quality of health care. Most of the time a Dodge Neon will be just fine and can get you where you need to be, but sometimes you need a little more. How can a family doctor handle all these different problems, there is just too much to know. They end up refering to specialists for every little thing and don't do more than give their patients hugs. Anyway this went on for what felt like forever and being unable to do much else except for meekly insert my opinion every now and then (careful now he is grading me), I just sat there and took it. Asshole.

So, I guess today my skin got a little thicker. My skin has grown thicker over the past year. The 3rd year of medical school has a way of doing that to you. My attending did remind me of the passion & love I have for primary care. The way I want to know my patient's, spend time with them, provide comprehensive preventative health care. Yes, I will have to refer my patient's to specialists when needed, but I will be the one who ensures that they as an entire person, not just one organ system is taken care of. I could have sold out for the money, but I prefer to put up with the occasional ignorant doctor for the respect I will someday recieve from my patients. If you cannot respect me, well then I guess I just lost the little respect I granted you.

9 more days of surgery! The hating on family medicine won't stop, but I know what I believe and where my principles lie.

And if that means being a Dodge Neon then so be it.