everyone likes a challenge

Even though medical school is an enormous feat in itself, many graduating M.D.s still want to push themselves and learn more by specializing.  This desire is admirable to people like me, who would probably need a good dose of R&R in the form of a long vacation.  Admirable as it may be, the medical field as a whole needs to realize that while specialized doctors are important, primary care physicians numbers are decreasing steadily in this country.  It is an individual's choice to decide what career path to pursue but if there is a shift in thinking by putting more emphasis on the need for primary care doctors somehow, maybe we will see a change in the numbers.  A specialized doctor is definitely more glamourous in that they know more, get paid more, and save lives more specifically, however if we had more emphasis on primary care in general then maybe we wouldn't need all these specialized services.  I feel like this shift is comparable to the shortage of teachers in this country, where if we focused more on a stellar education for our youth, we would reap many more downstream benefits, rather than focusing on rehabilitating them once they have been through our somewhat broken system.  The country as a whole needs to focus more on primary causes in all aspects of health instead of creating newer and better ways to deal with the repercussions of a failed system.