Internist Interview

I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Becker, an internist at North Texas Internist P.A., regarding her experience in the field with almost thirty years of experience. She made many interesting, even eye-opening, points throughout the wonderful half-hour I had with her. Her experience in Houston and challenges she faced during her education have provided me with a new and refreshed perspective of internal medicine. One main comment she made was that there has been an exponential increase in the rate of patients shifting from a general physician or a family practitioner to an internist. However, there has been a steady decrease in the number of residents pursuing internal medicine for other subspecialties. Because of this unstable relationship …show more content…
There is always the opportunity to learn from each and every case. Regardless of the difficulty level, there is an unsaid obligation to treat all patients, even though an internist can pick and choose his or her patients to treat. Ethically, it would be unfair towards the patient to reject to treat them if they have an obscure disorder or disease. In reality, though, some people do not provide services to potential clients because if they cannot treat their patients to full recovery, it would make them look ‘bad’ in the medical society and be frowned upon for referrals. This should not allowed as it is unjust for patients and one should not base who they treat based on the money flow from patients. It is important that the doctors should set their ego aside and not be afraid to ask questions, consult other colleagues or refer the patient to a specialist who has more knowledge on what the patient may be going through. In relation to how a doctor should treat a patient, Dr Becker believes that there is not one way to do so, and that there should always be a diffusion of knowledge in the community. There is no set criteria, but there is a set of required skills that should be cultivated in all doctors’ practice. From those skills, people can branch out and create new methods of treatment. The problem is that the insurance companies find …show more content…
Becker believes that there is less freedom in a hospital setting but more experiences that a doctor can gain from it to better the mannerisms of their treatment. In a hospital setting, there are restrictions on when the doctor should be present and how his por schedule is, so the doctor must cannot manage time efficiently because of this on-the-go system. In a clinic setting, however, there is the independence of choosing the hours of work and being able to have an effective communication system with the patient. This was an interesting observation as many would think that there is more of an interdependence in a hospital then there is in a private