To Specialize or Not to Specialize? That is the Question...

And here's the answer...okay maybe not but I'll try...

When we all enrolled in our respective undergraduate universities we went in with a vague idea of what it was that we wanted to do and what we thought our major might be. Then we slowly began to realize what our strengths and weaknesses were, what intrigued us and what put us to sleep, and most importantly, what subjects made us want to learn more. We were no longer undeclared. We had narrowed down our options and chosen one of hundreds of majors offered.

Okay AJ but what does that have to do with doctors choosing to specialize or to simply (relatively speaking) become primary care physicians? Medical students are like undergraduate students in certain respects. They're going to want to learn more about what interests them and what they are passionate about. If I am particularly amazed by the function of the brain, or if I want to help individuals with cancer because I can relate to them in one way or another, why would I want to settle for becoming a PCP? I would obviously want to battle these issues head on rather than tell someone to go to a different doctor to do the same, so why wouldn't I invest a little more time, money, and effort into becoming that specialist. Sure, the incentives are tremendous: the increased pay, the respect from colleagues, etc. But it doesn't come at a cheaper cost and the severity of diseases and conditions is undoubtedly serious. In the end, however, I think it is human nature that ultimately drives one to become a specialist: the tendency to want to do what is most appealing to oneself and most self-gratifying.

With that being said, however, there is an obvious shortage of PCPs and a surge in the specialty department. I think the only way to reverse or stop this trend is to offer incentives to medical students who choose to go into primary care. What type of incentives, you may be asking? I'm not exactly sure to be honest, but there needs to be some sort of reward or acknowledgement that although they may have chosen to go on to specialize, they didn't do so in an effort to help the dynamic of specialists/PCPs in the United States. So then the incentive may become monetary or it may relate to the number of patients seen on a weekly basis. But whatever it may be, it has to be one that equalizes the appeal of both becoming a specialist and of becoming a PCP, such that there isn't a shift in balance from specialists to PCPs that results.