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 to recruit more students into family medicine

Kenneth Lin, MD
Physician
August 16, 2020
Share
Tweet
Share

In 2019, a Policy One-Pager produced by the Robert Graham Center reported that the percentage of the active U.S. physician workforce in primary care practice declined from 32 percent in 2010 to 30 percent in 2018. Although family physicians represent 4 in 10 primary care physicians, in several states, a large percentage of family physicians are older than 55 years and anticipated to transition to part-time practice or retire by 2030. The immediate prospects for replacing them are poor. Graduates of 14 U.S. allopathic medical schools that were newly accredited since 2002 and had at least one graduating class by 2015 were actually 40 percent less likely to enter family medicine than graduates of the 118 previously existing schools.

Recognizing the imperative to not only maintain, but expand the family medicine workforce to meet the population’s needs, the Workforce and Education Development team of Family Medicine for America’s Health recommended adoption of a shared aim known as 25 x 2030: to increase the percentage of U.S. medical students choosing family medicine from 12 percent to 25 percent by the year 2030. Supported by the American Academy of Family Physicians and seven other national and international family medicine organizations, the America Needs More Family Doctors: 25 x 2030 collaborative was officially launched in August 2018.

In an editorial in the January 15 issue of American Family Physician, Dr. Jacob Prunuske, a member of the 25 x 2030 Steering Committee, described the collaborative’s guiding principles, benefits to physicians at all levels of experience, and how family doctors in the trenches can support progress toward this ambitious aim:

Recruit before medical school. Encourage children and young adults to not only go to medical school, but to become a family doctor. Active recruitment is especially valuable in underserved or rural communities and for those underrepresented in medicine.

Change the medical school experience. When you have the opportunity to work with medical students, say yes. If you must say no, reflect on what it would take to get you to say yes, and share your reflections with your health care system, institution, or the 25 × 2030 working groups so that they can address barriers to teaching. As preceptors for medical students, family doctors not only teach family medicine principles, but also serve as mentors and role models. Embrace this role. Debunk myths and counter negative stereotypes of family medicine. Family doctors provide high-value care by delivering high-quality outcomes while controlling costs. Medical students need this experience with practicing family doctors to combat the alternative messages of other specialties.

Advocate for family medicine. Legislative leaders need to hear about the value of family medicine from voters. Respond to advocacy calls, and advocate at the local, state, and national levels for changes that support family medicine. Share your advocacy efforts with your patients and tell them why these issues matter to you, them, and all of us.

Embrace change. Patient expectations, technology, and health systems will evolve. Rather than react, help guide these changes to fit the principles of family medicine.

An excellent resource for interested medical students is a 2016 AFP article, “Responses to Medical Students’ Frequently Asked Questions About Family Medicine,” which answers common questions about the importance of the specialty, residency and fellowship training, procedural skills and scope of practice, economic realities, and future prospects. The article advised students that “the best way to know if family medicine is the right fit for you is to work with family physicians in action, by doing a rotation with a family physician in practice.” The trouble with this advice, though, is that a lot of my colleagues are unhappy or just plain miserable, worn down by caring for too many patients in too little time and being consumed by tedious “desktop medicine” tasks rather than the face-to-face interactions that are the reason they went into primary care in the first place. To recruit more students into family medicine, we will need to make dramatic changes to unhealthy and unsustainable work environments.

Kenneth Lin is a family physician who blogs at Common Sense Family Doctor. 

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

With COVID-19, a need to deregulate buprenorphine prescriptions [PODCAST]

August 15, 2020 Kevin 0
…
Next

A letter to 2020 interns

August 16, 2020 Kevin 0
…

Tagged as: Primary Care

Post navigation

< Previous Post
With COVID-19, a need to deregulate buprenorphine prescriptions [PODCAST]
Next Post >
A letter to 2020 interns

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Kenneth Lin, MD

  • When should you prescribe statins for older adults?

    Kenneth Lin, MD
  • Clinical practice guidelines have problems, but they’re not broken

    Kenneth Lin, MD
  • Why you shouldn’t place too much importance in college and medical school rankings

    Kenneth Lin, MD

Related Posts

  • Is medicine really a model family-friendly profession?

    Kristina Fiore
  • Why medical students should be taught the business side of medicine

    Martinus Megalla
  • Family medicine and the fight for the soul of health care

    Timothy Hoff, PhD
  • How social media can advance humanism in medicine

    Pooja Lakshmin, MD
  • Why medical students should not let medicine define them

    King Pascual
  • Start with the students: Addressing the future of physician suicide

    Anonymous

More in Physician

  • The dying man who gave me flowers changed how I see care

    Augusta Uwah, MD
  • How market forces fracture millennial physicians’ careers

    Shannon Meron, MD
  • Unity in primary care: Why I believe physicians and NPs/PAs must work together toward the same goal

    Jerina Gani, MD, MPH
  • Guilty until proven innocent? My experience with a state medical board.

    Jeffrey Hatef, Jr., MD
  • How to balance clinical duties with building a startup

    Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA
  • When life makes you depend on Depends

    Francisco M. Torres, MD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Why palliative care is more than just end-of-life support

      Dr. Vishal Parackal | Conditions
    • When life makes you depend on Depends

      Francisco M. Torres, MD | Physician
    • Guilty until proven innocent? My experience with a state medical board.

      Jeffrey Hatef, Jr., MD | Physician
    • Why medical notes have become billing scripts instead of patient stories

      Sriman Swarup, MD, MBA | Tech
    • How denial of hypertension endangers lives and what doctors can do

      Dr. Aminat O. Akintola | Conditions
    • A powerful story of addiction, strength, and redemption

      Ryan McCarthy, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why transgender health care needs urgent reform and inclusive practices

      Angela Rodriguez, MD | Conditions
    • COVID-19 was real: a doctor’s frontline account

      Randall S. Fong, MD | Conditions
    • Why primary care doctors are drowning in debt despite saving lives

      John Wei, MD | Physician
    • New student loan caps could shut low-income students out of medicine

      Tom Phan, MD | Physician
    • Confessions of a lipidologist in recovery: the infection we’ve ignored for 40 years

      Larry Kaskel, MD | Conditions
    • mRNA post vaccination syndrome: Is it real?

      Harry Oken, MD | Conditions
  • Recent Posts

    • Why doctors should rethink investing compared to the average U.S. investor [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How chronic stress harms the heart in minority communities

      Monzur Morshed, MD and Kaysan Morshed | Conditions
    • Could antibiotics beat heart disease where statins failed?

      Larry Kaskel, MD | Conditions
    • The dying man who gave me flowers changed how I see care

      Augusta Uwah, MD | Physician
    • Universities must tap endowments to sustain biomedical research

      Adeel Khan, MD | Conditions
    • Exploring the science behind burnout [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 8 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

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Why palliative care is more than just end-of-life support

      Dr. Vishal Parackal | Conditions
    • When life makes you depend on Depends

      Francisco M. Torres, MD | Physician
    • Guilty until proven innocent? My experience with a state medical board.

      Jeffrey Hatef, Jr., MD | Physician
    • Why medical notes have become billing scripts instead of patient stories

      Sriman Swarup, MD, MBA | Tech
    • How denial of hypertension endangers lives and what doctors can do

      Dr. Aminat O. Akintola | Conditions
    • A powerful story of addiction, strength, and redemption

      Ryan McCarthy, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why transgender health care needs urgent reform and inclusive practices

      Angela Rodriguez, MD | Conditions
    • COVID-19 was real: a doctor’s frontline account

      Randall S. Fong, MD | Conditions
    • Why primary care doctors are drowning in debt despite saving lives

      John Wei, MD | Physician
    • New student loan caps could shut low-income students out of medicine

      Tom Phan, MD | Physician
    • Confessions of a lipidologist in recovery: the infection we’ve ignored for 40 years

      Larry Kaskel, MD | Conditions
    • mRNA post vaccination syndrome: Is it real?

      Harry Oken, MD | Conditions
  • Recent Posts

    • Why doctors should rethink investing compared to the average U.S. investor [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How chronic stress harms the heart in minority communities

      Monzur Morshed, MD and Kaysan Morshed | Conditions
    • Could antibiotics beat heart disease where statins failed?

      Larry Kaskel, MD | Conditions
    • The dying man who gave me flowers changed how I see care

      Augusta Uwah, MD | Physician
    • Universities must tap endowments to sustain biomedical research

      Adeel Khan, MD | Conditions
    • Exploring the science behind burnout [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 to recruit more students into family medicine
8 comments

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

Loading Comments...