For better or worse, the news has come not long after the discovery that families are struggling to find a physician.
The broad range in which a family doctor can specialise in has become the boon of the medical industry; whilst less specialised and technical than other medical programs, the career of a family doctor is a much-needed necessity in modern living.
The career of a family doctor is perhaps not that it holds the prospect of money-making. Indeed the demands placed upon a doctor’s shoulders can be both tiresome and claustrophobic, as it is a lifestyle that is without scheduling and a call can happen on the spur-of-the-moment. As such, the pricing for a family doctor can be an increasingly high one – a daunting factor for any young student.
For some, it is the reward of helping others – a young, but positive outlook towards the future. With some wishing to bend their craft towards particular settings, from rural to suburban, no price is too great when people need help. The benefits of a face-to-face, hands-on approach towards this role suggests that patients are far more at ease and perhaps even more satisfied than the immediate rush perpetrated by hospital doctors.
One student remarked that, “The relationships you can form with your patients, those professional relationships are positive in terms of improving patient care because you have the opportunity to look at the person as a whole rather than just one small tidbit of their medical history, and you become an integral part of the community.”
The diversity of work is both challenging and satisfying, with the unpredictability coming towards family doctors each day. Perhaps it is merely a question of personality, where the needs of the patient will always be the spirit of family doctors across the globe.
For Alberta at least, the need is great – and its potential doctors are only too pleased to answer its call.