Is It OK if Our Residency Graduates Work for Walmart?

Joseph Scherger, MD, MPH

Joseph Scherger, MD, MPH

I attended a health care forecast conference recently and learned a sobering new reality. In the near future, Americans will be getting their primary care services in many different locations.

Walmart has announced that it soon will be offering comprehensive primary care in many of its stores. Walgreens, already the largest provider of immunizations outside the government, will expand its Take Care clinics and manage four common chronic diseases: diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and asthma. A longtime colleague and family medicine educator recently went to work for Kroger’s new clinic system, The Little Clinic. Large employers are setting up workplace clinics to provide common health services while keeping their employees on the job.

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Be Conscious of What the Big Rocks Are in Your Life

Julie Schirmer, LCSW

Julie Schirmer, LCSW

On May 3, 2012, I officially become the director of the STFM Behavioral Science/Family Systems Educator Fellowship, on top of many other commitments and responsibilities. As I approach this, I ask myself, “How will I ever fit the responsibilities of this position on top of everything else that I have to do? How do I prioritize? And, finally, what’s really important to me (ie, why am I doing this)?”

To me, the last question is the easiest to answer and was something I considered before accepting the position. I want to hang out with energized, impassioned faculty who are dedicated to nurturing our next generation of behavioral science faculty leaders. It’s part my desire to be inspired and challenged by others and part generativity.

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I Have a Confession

Cheryl Seymour, MD

Cheryl
Seymour, MD

WomenInFMThis is the fourth in a work/life balance series written by members of the STFM Group on Women in Family Medicine.

The ACGME Draft Program Requirements for GME in Family Medicine include a requirement that all core faculty work full time. Please consider the implications of this requirement for your program now and in the future as you read this post.

So I have a confession… I really do want it all.

Doesn’t everyone?

I want to practice full spectrum family medicine: deliver babies, round on the floors and in the ICU, care for families in the clinic, nursing home, and at home and I want to teach residents and students, have a vibrant academic career, serve as an advocate for the health of my community and I want to be an engaged and loving parent and spouse.

Is this possible?

My mentors and heroes are physicians who have delivered three generations of babies, attend funerals as a matter of course, and have literally spent thousands of hours listening to residents’ H&Ps in the middle of the night. They have served the same community for decades and are still going strong, taking call without complaint, into their sixth and seventh decades.

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