Contents tagged with family medicine

  • My journey to family medicine

    Tags: texas family physician, perspective, waner, family medicine, resident

    Friday, August 6, 2010 11:15:00 AM
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    By Laci Waner, M.D.

    When I was a child, there were two physicians in my small town and both were family physicians. Thus, I based my idea of a physician on these two men: a man who treats each member of an entire family, a community leader, wears boots, has a polished log with a saddle for kids to ride in the waiting room, and has a jar full of stickers and suckers for post-visit rewards. When I asked for a doctor’s kit one Christmas and set up my first clinic for my dolls and toys in my bedroom, it was this idea of a physician that I aspired to be—minus the man part.

    As I grew into an adult and started my journey in medicine, I initially strayed from my lifelong interest in primary care. I was drawn to the instant gratification of surgery and the false security in the idea of limited, specific knowledge in a specialty. After exploring my interest in research, I embarked on my time in medical school much the same as any other student. I did not bargain for the expanded education I received from life while completing my school’s pre-clinical courses. The saying “sometimes life happens whether you are a student or not and whether you have a test or not” became more than just words to me. In addition to many educational experiences in medical school, I married my husband, Chris; gained a son we named Kylen; buried my father, Dudley; and gave birth to our second child, Addyx. My third-year rotations, especially the one in family medicine, greatly influenced my decision to pursue my desired specialty. However, they cannot compare to the influence that life imposed.

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  • The true meaning of family medicine

    Tags: texas family physician, perspective, family medicine, elliott

    Sunday, January 31, 2010 8:15:00 AM
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    By Tricia C. Elliott, M.D., F.A.A.F.P.
    Program Director, Baylor College of Medicine Kelsey-Seybold Clinic Family Medicine Residency Program

    I am a family physician. In fact, I absolutely love being a family physician!

    In my 10 years of practice, 10 years of academic medicine, years as an associate residency director and now program director, my background in inner-city, underserved medicine advocating for patients’ health and social justice, and my involvement with the Academy on the local, state and the national level, what is it really all about?

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  • I didn’t know family docs could do that!

    Tags: scope of practice, family medicine, value, family medicine residency program

    Thursday, October 15, 2009 5:00:00 AM
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    By Troy Fiesinger, M.D.
    TAFP Vice President

    I was playing golf recently in a charity tournament with a couple of orthopedic surgeons whose office is down the road from mine. As we made the usual small talk about where we went to medical school and residency, I mentioned that I delivered babies. The response I received was tinged with incredulousness: “You deliver babies? I didn’t know family doctors still did that.”

    For me, obstetrics is part of what defines me as a family physician. Few things can compare to meeting a patient as a teenager, caring for her through high school and early adulthood, delivering her first child, and then helping her cope with the stresses of motherhood while her husband is deployed in Iraq. Her parents and little brother were also my patients. That is the essence of family medicine. Why wouldn’t I want to care for the entire family throughout the life cycle? When I am asked what I specialize in, I answer “everything.” I enjoy being a jack of all trades.

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