Family Medicine Residency: The First Step Toward Helping People

Written By: Rachael Kaine

What Comes After a Family Medicine Residency?

You know the drill when it comes to medical school - years of college spent studying and taking tests, followed by on-the-job experience and more studying in real-life situations and opportunities before graduating and being permitted to practice medicine. Many people choose to become nurses and therapists, but even more decide to go on and become specialists with a focus on a specific area. There are even opportunities to continue studying before striking out on your own, focusing on a sub-specialty area, but before this, there is an opportunity to complete a family medicine residency and focus your attention on the care of people of all ages with many different ailments and medical needs.

Completing a Franklin family medicine residency is no different than many other residency programs across the country, but it will provide you with the skills and abilities to be able to provide quality, comprehensive care in many different situations. This is a highly regulated program type with an established board of leadership, and is a branch of medicine that is (and should be) highly respected and revered.

The Scope of a Family Medicine Residency

Unlike medical care that happens with specialists or emergency room employees, family medicine relies on a patient/doctor relationship that is built and cultivated over time. By knowing and understanding the needs of patients, family medicine doctors are able to provide a different kind of care - on a personal level. By staying with the same doctor from childhood into adulthood, there will be no need to explain old ailments and care situations, and there will be no fear or distrust on the end of the patient; the longer this relationship has lasted, the more likely patients are to be open and honest with their care providers.

This residency will give you the opportunity to study and practice in many different areas like pediatrics, gynecology and obstetrics, internal medicine and even psychiatry, making you well rounded and able to approach situations from different angles and with different ideas. Not only do family medicine doctors provide treatment and diagnose conditions, they also must provide preventive care like immunizations, check-ups, screenings and lifestyle counseling.

Though some medical conditions may require patients to see specialists, often family doctors are the ones that coordinate this shared care, ensuring that all parties involved are up to date and aware of everything that is going on. In many cases, family doctors are the ones responsible for the “in between” care and monitoring of patients that are suffering from conditions like heart disease, diabetes and even cancer when they cannot see their specialists. This type of care and personalized attention to cases will help patients feel more confident in their lifestyles and the status of their overall health.