My first rotation was Family medicine and on the very first day I was very much impressed and motivated by the direct involvement of doctors with the patients. The environment the ideology all attracted me and I enjoyed and enhanced many important traits like communication, compassion and counseling. Family medicine is based on continuity of care. The patient-physician relationship is central to this process. It gives true colors to the portrait of a doctor who was able to relieve suffering and pain at the doorsteps led me to pursue career in medicine.
The Family physician focuses on treating the patient rather than just a disease entity and such treatment is uniquely affected by the individual circumstances of each patient. During my course of internship as well I found that family medicine gives the true opportunity to understand and deal with the patients problems immediately and individually. A Family physician is trained and educated to provide comprehensive medical care, health maintenance and preventive medicine services to all members of the family regardless of age, sex and the type of problem – i.e. biologic, behavioral or social.
As the name suggests, the emphasis of a Family physician is on the Family and not just disease process or pathophysiology. The most motivating fact is that Family Medicine requires it’s practitioner to be not just a clinician, but also an advocate, coordinator, counselor, information resource and at times support for their patients. It not only treats diseases but also prevents it.
By breaking free from the limitations of age, sex and type of problem in defining their scope of practice, Family physicians are in an unique position to understand and treat the protean manifestations of clinical, behavioral and psychosocial problems across the entire frame of a lifetime. Being a mother of two I understand the importance of family practitioner and role of Family medicine which is totally based on continuity of care.
The general practitioner/family physician assumes personal responsibility for making the multiple resources of the health care system available to the individual and family, overcoming any difficulties as necessary. This role is consistent with the participation of other health care workers who may be involved in providing direct care to the patient. The services of the general practitioner/family physician must be formally integrated into the overall health care system, including working in an explicitly defined way with the other primary (including indigenous) health care workers, with secondary and tertiary levels of health care, and with relevant community and government organizations.
General /family practice differs from other specialties in the following respects: The general practitioner/family physician often deals with undifferentiated clinical problems, i. e. Problems that have not previously been assessed by a physician. Even after full assessment, a significant proportion of problems cannot and do not need to be diagnosed in the usual sense of the term. Many clinical decisions have therefore to be made without a precise clinical diagnosis. Knowledge of the patient often plays a big part in these decisions.
Often the most important task is to eliminate the possibility of a serious disease. The prevalence of disease in general practice is very different from its prevalence in the selected population of a hospital clinic or ward. Since the predictive value of clinical data varies with the prevalence of a disease in a given population, the same symptom, sign or test will have a different predictive value in general/family practice from that in hospital practice. The general/practitioner family physician often sees disease in an early stage, before the full clinical picture has developed.
Since the sensitivity and specificity of clinical data vary with the stages of a disease, therefore, tests that are valuable in general/family practice may be different from those that are useful in hospital practice. In addition to knowing about the technical aspects of medicine, the general practitioner/family physician must learn about the applied aspects of epidemiology, behavioral science, environmental health, and basic health economics that are relevant to general/family practice.
The wider role of Family medicine involves serving community by having knowledge of epidemiology of the community being served. And by having the maximum influence on any health problem in the community. To understand health-related behaviors in the community and to support the community’s own efforts to safeguard the health of the population. Various campaigns are carried out to server community like HIV education, smoking prevention, polio vaccinations and many more.
Basically, to create awareness for health, management of illness, and rehabilitation. I look forward to be a resident at Al-Ain Family Medicine Residency Program, after which I will be actively involved in treating patients in many different areas of the Hospital and in every life situation, from prenatal to geriatric. I will be able to care for patients of all ages in the Family Health Care Center and for those referred by local family doctors in the inpatient setting with a team of family physicians.
I also look forward to care for patients in the outpatient setting; Opportunities and challenges for Family physicians are perhaps more than for any other specialty. I intend to receive training in procedural skills, chronic disease management, practice management, preventive care, newborn, well-child, gynecologic, and psychological care. Family physicians are suited for practice in the smallest and largest of communities. Their challenge is to ensure that all family and community members have access to effective primary care.
It’s not the disease that has to be treated; it’s the ideas, concerns and expectations of the patients’ to be fulfilled too. I feel privileged to be able to study and continue my career in U. A. E as great importance is given to Family and community medicine from the very beginning and lot of opportunities are provided to continue our training further. Last but not the least, Al-Ain is my birth place, and I truly want to serve its community.