While it might not be the highest paying medical profession or have an entire TV series centered on its drama—family doctors are in high demand. The work is pretty meaningful too.
Some might call us the “doctors of the people.” Actually, I don’t know if anyone has ever called us that but I feel like it’s an accurate title because we walk through life with our patients. “Womb to tomb” is not a hyperbole.
For example, at Jericho Road, we often find ourselves caring for a woman throughout her pregnancy, going through labor and delivery with her, and then seeing that baby a week later for their newborn appointment. When that child becomes school-age, we make sure they have their school physical and vaccines. If someone in their family develops hypertension, diabetes or even cancer, yearly visits with us mean we catch it quickly and treat it quickly. We care for the entire family and sometimes, generations of family members. After 30 years of practicing family medicine in Buffalo, some of our providers have even delivered the babies of babies they once delivered! Try saying that 5 times fast.
When I was in undergrad, I had the opportunity to go on some global trips. I witnessed the need for basic healthcare in those countries. I knew then that I would probably go into primary care. But, in my third and fourth years of medical school, I did clinical hours in Patterson, NJ. That city is one of the most impoverished cities in America and so it is one of the sickest as well. I saw people delaying care until it was too late because they could not afford to see a doctor. Illnesses that were preventable went untreated. I realized in my time there that primary healthcare was also a huge need in the US.
After medical school, I did my residency in family medicine in Pennsylvania. All that I had learned in school stuck with me because as a primary care physician, I was using all of it every day as I met with patients. When I finished residency, I joined Jericho Road Community Health Center in Buffalo, NY. Here, I get to maintain relationships with hundreds of patients, deliver their babies, take care of them when they are sick, take care of them when they are well, and really, walk through life with them.
As a health center in an urban setting, delivering hundreds of babies each year, specializing in refugee care, and finding ways to be accessible to everyone, no matter if they have Medicaid or are uninsured, we get to care for extremely diverse patients and we see a wide range of pathologies. There is never a boring day at Jericho Road.
At the end of 2018, I helped develop Jericho Road to become a family medicine residency site. The site was created to expose and train residents on how to provide quality healthcare in an underserved, diverse population. Connected with the University at Buffalo Family Residency Program, we welcome four new residents each year. They stick with us for three years while they do their family medicine rotations and if we can, we hold on to them for much longer! We have had much success in hiring our residents as full-time family doctors once they graduate–here, they continue the Jericho Road mission of caring for the most vulnerable.
There is a huge demand for family doctors. I hope everyone in medical school considers it. For me, after seeing the needs of the community, I believed that being a family physician was a good way to do care—it meant I could really invest my career and life into a community. Ultimately, I believed it would be the best way to start changing outcomes. Caring for someone on their worst day but then getting to see them on their best days too—it is a full circle moment, and one that I am extremely lucky to have over and over again with my patients. I don’t regret that decision at all. And I hope you will come experience this for yourself.
