Free Food!

Back in college, wherever there was free food, there was I. The event, the organization, the place were all irrelevant. And it is still the same ten years later. Tonight, the local organization of general practitioners is hosting a dinner for fourth-year medical students at a golf club. Needless to say, I am there. Oh yeah, I am considering GP as a possible career option in the future.

Thinking showing up to a doctors’ gathering at a golf club on a bike may be a bit weird, I decide to drive. I pull into the parking lot, pass all the fancy and shiny cars, and find a space to park my little hatchback next to a late model BMW. Walking into the club house, I am handed a name tag and am immediately presented with a tray of beer and wine for my choosing. Free booze, trays of hors d’oeuvres floating around, and people standing around exchanging witty remarks – it’s time for schmoozing. I hate schmoozing under any circumstances, even when I don’t need to be selling myself. I scan the room, looking for cover. Spotting a group of other fourth-years nearby, I shuffle up to them to find safety in numbers and familiarity.

After a half hour, we sit down at the tables for dinner. The rest of the night consists of great food and interesting talks from two of the GPs about their work. It appears that the emphasis of the night is on rural GP work, as both GPs recount their experience while working and living in a small town in far western Queensland. Seeing that Australia needs a lot more GPs, especially in rural and remote parts of the country, it behooves GP organizations like this to recruit soon-to-be doctors into their ranks.

As far as GP is concerned as a career option, I am actually putting it fairly high on my list at this point. I know, GP is not as sexy as, say, cardiac surgery or emergency medicine, or even any of the other hospital-based specialties, except maybe microbiology. But the lifestyle appeals to me and the general nature of the work – you never know what’s going to walk in the door next – makes it interesting. The training is short: only four years. As a GP, you’d get to build up a patient base and get to know them quite well over the years, especially in a smaller place where the population is not transient. Yes, to some specialists, you’d be “just a GP.” But if the choices are either to be the jack of all trades but master of none or to be the master of one thing and forgetting everything else, then the jack of all trades sounds pretty good to me.

At the end of the night, I don’t think my feeling about GP work has changed. But I do have to say the food was great. Sadly, we med students probably won’t be wined and dined like this by other specialties. Sigh…