<p>Any insights about the lifestyle of family physicians, or the career as a whole? </p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I'm in a rural family practice clinic right now. These guys work hard, have to take call every 5th night or so (there's no set cycle), and run a gamut of problems. </p>
<p>Being in a small town though means that if they want it, they can have a decent OB practice. 3 of the 4 also do a number of colonoscopies and upper GI scopes. So there is a variety, but if you want to live in a bigger city, those things go to specialists. My ex-girlfriend did her Family rotation in the city where our medical schools are located (she goes to a different school than I do), and she never saw any OB, rarely went to the hospital to round (her preceptor usually had hospitalists take care of his patients unless the patients specifically asked him to come), and really had a pretty different experience than I'm having.</p>
<p>At the same time, these guys really have to recognize the limitations of what they can handle. The closest major town with a large number of specialists is an hour away. And while they do have specialists who travel to their clinic to do office visits, they often have to deal with the problem of their patients going off to other specialists without them knowing...It's just a unique sort of issues based on their location.</p>
<p>All that said, EVERYONE loves these guys. They really are pillars of their community.</p>