Doctors
What American medicine needs, many servers agree, are primary-care
doctors whose scope is the whole patient. But only one-third of the
nation's doctors are general practitioners.
Not only are medical positions going unstaffed, but medical schools
are missing a valuable re-source--the well-rounded students who are
typically attracted to primary care. They are more likely to have arts
and humanities backgrounds and varied life experiences, says Michael
Rosenthal, M.D., a professor of family medicine at Jefferson Medical
College in Philadelphia. "They approach medicine with an interest in
knowing patients and how their emotions and life-styles influence their
health."
Rosenthal asked students who had already chosen their specialties
to reveal what they would be doing if they weren't doctors. Those who
chose technical specialties, like anesthesiology, listed banking,
business, law. "Primary-care students said day-care counselor, carpenter,
filmmaker."
Are primary-care types taking up technical specialties and creating
kinder, gentler surgeons? Not necessarily. Rosenthal thinks they are not
going to medical school at all.
Part of the problem is economic. Recent surveys out of Jefferson
Medical College show that $180,000 a year (a typical income of a
specialist), a reasonable work schedule, and a revamped recruitment
system might help fill the void. Some 700 graduating students from six
medical schools said they are interested in primary care but chose other
specialties be-cause of life-style, salary, and the $75,000 of debt that
40 percent of them accrue.
But money and life-style aren't everything. Medical schools demand
students with hard science backgrounds and outstanding GPAs entrance
ex-arms--the profile of students likely to pass on primary care. Perhaps
an admissions policy that fits the liberal-arts, primary-care profile is
in order.
ILLUSTRATION
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