Four years ago at this same time of year, I was visiting all the FMP programs around the eastern US and trying to explain why I wanted to be a combined trained doc. After four years of residency I have learned more about how to practice not as a family doc nor as a psychiatrist but rather as a physician with very clinically useful and marketable perspective on how to best help patients.
I could talk forever about how I feel like this training is helpful to patients, but I think that it is very intuitive to patients as well as many medical students. What I didn't think about back when I was going through the recruitment season as a medical student and as a resident in earlier years was how interested potential recruiters are in having dually trained physicians. The etiology of this interest is involved and includes a trend towards integration of care, anticipated changes in health insurance, and the high demand of both specialties.
All of that is pretty esoteric. When I was interviewing for combined residencies, I wanted to know what people where doing with their combined training. It's early on in my search but so far every small town clinic and hospital that I have contacted have been very interested. One place has already started to integrate care and wants to move further on this pathway. Another place is so desperate for psychiatrists that they are using telepsychiatry to staff their inpatient unit and the family docs have no one to consult. Another place is working to combine my skills with a community mental health center and a family medicine residency.
Just like applying to residencies, this is a mind spinning process. Luckily I have been able to ask other graduates of the program about places they applied, who they had write letters, and how they negotiated. It's great to have former residents who have learned to combine their skills in a clinical setting and are willing to share their experience with me.
