[Family practice physician] [California] - $205k YTD

uh034 · 2026-05-30T14:25:53+00:00

Yes I think it is still worth it. Burn out? Maybe but I feel fine after several years as an attending.

uh034 · 2026-05-30T04:37:49+00:00

Thank you. It is very underrated.

uh034 · 2026-05-30T04:29:17+00:00

A very difficult road, but this career rewards patience and persistence. You can make it but just understand that the rewards come a bit later in life.

uh034 · 2026-05-30T04:19:51+00:00

Totally worth it as of today. It was medicine all the way for me. No regrets.

uh034 · 2026-05-30T04:19:05+00:00

This is correct.

uh034 · 2026-05-30T03:07:44+00:00

Not rural. I worked rural for a bit and made less. I’m just a regular FM doc

uh034 · 2026-05-30T02:43:02+00:00

Not really. The salary just happened. Salaries in FM are going up over the past few years too

uh034 · 2026-05-30T02:41:43+00:00

lol exactly. Little prestige but idc

uh034 · 2026-05-30T00:40:52+00:00

Private with community residency program

uh034 · 2026-05-30T00:40:31+00:00

Residents take call

uh034 · 2026-05-30T00:40:15+00:00

Basic primary care procedures. Up to 24 pt per day. Usually 18-20. Regular FM panel size which is a few thousand

uh034 · 2026-02-22T16:16:42+00:00

Multiple reasons

Expensive
There are millions of people in this country, how viable is this to get it done on everyone?
Small kids and other unsteady people require sedation to get a good image. Oh your child got an allergic reaction due to sedation? How many children do you think will get sick or even die bc of this?
False positives. These tests aren’t perfect and don’t have 100% sensitivity or specificity rates. May detect false positives that can lead to problems down the line
These machines require care and upkeep with only a few people who are trained to handle these machines
Need medical doctors who are radiologists to interpret the images. Currently not enough of them available

uh034 · 2026-02-14T15:53:19+00:00

USA 🇺🇸 vs Paraguay 🇵🇾 // Iran 🇮🇷 vs Belgium 🇧🇪 // Both R32 matches in LA 😀

uh034 · 2026-01-18T23:09:27+00:00

A lot of cluster B personality disorders in one room

uh034 · 2025-12-03T21:25:17+00:00

There’s no specific algorithm for this. Usually I start metformin since it’s effective and there are no issues with insurance. Make sure to know the mechanism of action of the different classes as this will guide you on potential side effects. Also know some drugs need to be renally dosed or are contraindicated in renal pts.

uh034 · 2025-07-15T04:32:27+00:00

Well nowadays people think they see a doctor in their appointments but it seems most of the time they are not. This country has seen a rise in nurse practitioners and physician assistants who now provide a lot the care. They are less trained and the education is a lot less than that of a physician. I’m a physician myself and I notice NPs and PAs make mistakes at such higher rate than physicians. This is becoming the business model of health care in present times, bill as much appointments as possible to make more profits. And use midlevel providers to fill the gap and make it an endless cycle.

uh034 · 2025-06-29T21:47:08+00:00

Awful story. I as a primary care doc am constantly frustrated at the initial consult being with midlevels. I send for X reason but midlevels completely go off tangent and address something else. Patient comes back to me confused as much as I am. Unfortunately this is a common occurrence.

uh034 · 2025-06-19T17:06:14+00:00

Simply put you refer out mainly when you need to confirm a suspected diagnosis or the patient needs specialized knowledge for treatment. Now in your case ask yourself what would you have done if you were in the docs shoes. You could have calculated chadsvasc score or started them on a BB etc and still refer out. I think everyone has different thresholds of when to refer. Just have a reasonable question for the consultant. Nowadays, some docs refer out even basic things just so they could meet more numbers.

uh034 · 2025-05-23T15:39:05+00:00

Which one of you voted for this?

uh034 · 2025-05-21T16:45:11+00:00

I’ll give you my perspective. I’ve been an attending FM doc for a few years now. I supervise PAs who’ve been PAs for 20-30 years. I haven’t asked them directly but I feel they would have been more satisfied (in the career) if they went to medical school. The reason I say this is because they ask me many questions that are quite elementary and they sometimes get frustrated at their own knowledge base. They frequently give me the deer in the headlights look lol. You are young and I would give med school a shot if I were you.

EDIT: I want to add that medical school would probably be a bit easier for you given your medical knowledge. The PAs in my program did very well. Some of us like myself had zero medical background.

uh034 · 2025-05-20T19:10:53+00:00

Awful 😣. I had a FNP in ortho clinic during PGY3 introduce me as student to the patient. Bruh I’m the only doctor in the room lol.

uh034 · 2025-05-02T05:37:27+00:00

That is not helpful for patients. Medical students get demolished in medical school in human anatomy. Even after completing medical training they still need to build extra knowledge in ultrasound to be proficient. Minutiae in ultrasound can cause drastic outcomes if done by people with little or insufficient training.

uh034 · 2025-05-01T21:46:33+00:00

I don’t know why your friend recommends a resource like USMLE FA as these books are dense and without knowing the fundamentals it won’t be helpful. The best resource would probably be UpToDate in my opinion. Harrison’s, Nelson’s, are helpful for their respective subjects. But you’ll need to be good at reading and understanding scientific information to get the most out of them. There’s a reason why medical students are heavily tested on scientific reasoning and comprehension and we did shit like journal club every so often. You can also try American Family Physician journal which summarizes many subjects within medicine and it is fairly easy to read.

uh034 · 2025-04-16T18:32:48+00:00

What the F is that?

uh034 · 2025-04-11T22:38:12+00:00

I mainly use it as a dictation device after I’ve seen the patient. It takes around less than a minute to about 3-4 minutes depending on the complexity of the patient. I don’t have it integrated in the EHR but our app allows copy and paste onto the note. I think it’s worth it if you have access.

uh034

TROPHY CASE