Three sobering examples from Health Beat, detailing instances were doctors either left primary care or chose another field.

The majority of medical school training is anchored in specialty training. Students are not exposed to a primary care ideal, leaving them with a negative impression. Why would they go into primary care, where students “simply can’t get their bearings; so they abandon the field,” because of the “frenetic pace” of generalist medicine they are exposed to while training.

The conveyor-belt aspect is the reason why two other doctors left, one to become a hospitalist, and the other to urgent care medicine. The pressure to see and do more leads to a stark reality that many are realizing about the field: “this is not why [they] wanted to become a doctor[s].”

topics: primary care, time