Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

How urgent care rejuvenates this primary care doctor

Hans Duvefelt, MD
Physician
July 25, 2018
Share
Tweet
Share

I volunteered to work Saturdays. And to do walk-ins. And to take all comers, not just our patients.

It has been an interesting journey.

Some clinics put their newest, least experienced clinicians on the very front line of doing urgent care. Here, it’s the opposite. I’ve got 39 years under my belt, and I see everything from sore throats to people who left the emergency room in the middle of a workup because their anxiety kept them from waiting for their CT scan to rule out a blood clot in their lungs.

The waiting room fills up, and it’s just me and a medical assistant.

It’s refreshing and rewarding to see things that can be fixed in a matter of minutes: embedded ticks, corneal foreign bodies, pieces of hearing aids deep inside ear canals, bursitis cases and nursemaid’s elbows.

My very first paychecks as a doctor came from weekend stints back in Sweden while I was still in medical school. At least back then, they had a system where senior medical students could be given temporary privileges as locum tenens physicians with minimal supervision. I worked weekends, Friday night to Monday morning, seeing patients that weren’t sick enough to need the full resources of the emergency room in a hospital about an hour away from my medical school.

Already then, I thrived on not knowing what challenge was next up. Whatever it is, I’ll do my best, I figured. And at that point, the resources of the emergency room were right down the hall.

Here, the emergency room is 20 miles away, but the ambulance is only a couple of miles away, and I’m not the stand-in EMT the way it was when I first came here.

Primary care is turning into a specialty of chronic care and public health. Some of the chronic care we do is really what internal medicine specialists used to do before they all wanted to subspecialize or go into hospital medicine. And much of the acute care we trained for is now being done by emergency and urgent care physicians as well as PAs and nurse practitioners.

And public health is a very different thing from what doctors of my generation trained for. I still feel it is better suited for nurses than doctors. I didn’t attend medical school for 5 1/2 years and do two residencies just to blindly follow rules; I trained to know when rules and guidelines do and don’t apply.

Doctors are trained to identify the exceptions from the rule, which is a useful skill on the front lines. Which migraine is really a brain tumor? Which asthma attack is a foreign body in the trachea? Which rash is a sign of leukemia?

I worked hard today, but I don’t feel drained; I feel energized, because I cured a few people, and closed a few cases. Chronic care with no acutes wears on you. The extra work I do may seem like a burden to some, but I find it rejuvenating. It brings a healthy balance to my work week.

“A Country Doctor” is a family physician who blogs at A Country Doctor Writes:.

ADVERTISEMENT

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

The pathologic manifestations of professionalism

July 25, 2018 Kevin 7
…
Next

Every doctor should have a plan B. Here's why.

July 26, 2018 Kevin 3
…

Tagged as: Primary Care

Post navigation

< Previous Post
The pathologic manifestations of professionalism
Next Post >
Every doctor should have a plan B. Here's why.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Hans Duvefelt, MD

  • The art of asking where it hurts

    Hans Duvefelt, MD
  • Thinking like a plumber when adjusting medications

    Hans Duvefelt, MD
  • The American food conspiracy

    Hans Duvefelt, MD

Related Posts

  • Primary Care First: CMS develops a value-based primary care program for independent practices

    Robert Colton, MD
  • Primary care makes a difference for patients and the nation

    Glen R. Stream, MD
  • The many benefits of strengthening the primary care workforce

    Nicole Liner-Jigamian, MSW
  • Primary care faces a very difficult winter

    Ken Terry
  • The biggest health care fix: a relentless focus on primary care

    Suneel Dhand, MD
  • The hidden work of primary care

    Michelle Nall, MPH, ANP-BC

More in Physician

  • How a rainy walk helped an oncologist rediscover joy and bravery

    Dr. Damane Zehra
  • How inspiration and family stories shape our most meaningful moments

    Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA
  • A day in the life of a WHO public health professional in Meghalaya, India

    Dr. Poulami Mazumder
  • Why women doctors are still mistaken for nurses

    Emma Fenske, DO
  • Adriana Smith’s story: a medical tragedy under heartbeat laws

    Nicole M. King, MD
  • Why U.S. health care pricing is so confusing—and how to fix it

    Ashish Mandavia, MD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Why removing fluoride from water is a public health disaster

      Steven J. Katz, DDS | Conditions
    • When did we start treating our lives like trauma?

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • Mastering medical presentations: Elevating your impact

      Harvey Castro, MD, MBA | Physician
    • Why the fear of being forgotten is stronger than the fear of death [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Why what doctors say matters more than you think [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The hidden incentives driving frivolous malpractice lawsuits

      Howard Smith, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • Addressing the physician shortage: How AI can help, not replace

      Amelia Mercado | Tech
    • Why medical students are trading empathy for publications

      Vijay Rajput, MD | Education
    • Bureaucracy over care: How the U.S. health care system lost its way

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Why the fear of being forgotten is stronger than the fear of death [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How a rainy walk helped an oncologist rediscover joy and bravery

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
    • How inspiration and family stories shape our most meaningful moments

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Physician
    • A day in the life of a WHO public health professional in Meghalaya, India

      Dr. Poulami Mazumder | Physician
    • Why women doctors are still mistaken for nurses

      Emma Fenske, DO | Physician
    • How home-based AI can reduce health inequities in underserved communities [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 1 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Why removing fluoride from water is a public health disaster

      Steven J. Katz, DDS | Conditions
    • When did we start treating our lives like trauma?

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • Mastering medical presentations: Elevating your impact

      Harvey Castro, MD, MBA | Physician
    • Why the fear of being forgotten is stronger than the fear of death [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Why what doctors say matters more than you think [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The hidden incentives driving frivolous malpractice lawsuits

      Howard Smith, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • Addressing the physician shortage: How AI can help, not replace

      Amelia Mercado | Tech
    • Why medical students are trading empathy for publications

      Vijay Rajput, MD | Education
    • Bureaucracy over care: How the U.S. health care system lost its way

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Why the fear of being forgotten is stronger than the fear of death [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How a rainy walk helped an oncologist rediscover joy and bravery

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
    • How inspiration and family stories shape our most meaningful moments

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Physician
    • A day in the life of a WHO public health professional in Meghalaya, India

      Dr. Poulami Mazumder | Physician
    • Why women doctors are still mistaken for nurses

      Emma Fenske, DO | Physician
    • How home-based AI can reduce health inequities in underserved communities [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

How urgent care rejuvenates this primary care doctor
1 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...