I am an MD with a pharmaceutical management MBA from Venezuela. I worked as a general practitioner for 7 years and did some occupational health consulting.

A general practitioner like me does their work in an outpatient setting. I wake up, get some breakfast and go to work. After sanitizing and following my daily personal protection routine I have a group of consultations that are scheduled for the day.

I run tests, perform physical examinations as well as interviewing the patient, prescribe my treatments and give recommendations, give immunizations, perform routine checkups on patients with chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, thyroid disorders and bone and joint pain. Sometimes I get to do some stitches or put a temporal cast on a fracture so the patient can be moved to another healthcare facility for evaluation by an orthopedic surgeon.

As a GP, I am capable of diagnosing about 70% of every consult I get, but the remaining 30% is beyond my resolution capacity, therefore I rely on the other part of the healthcare team: the specialists, I refer complex cases to specialists so they can treat better the patient. Part of my key responsibilities is the adequate registry of the statistics and tallying the reasons why people consult.

Pros

The pros of being a general practitioner are that you get to see new patients every day, and if it’s within your capacities, you solve the problem. You get to work with amazing nursing and staff and you are in charge. It’s also an 8 to 4 job in my case.

Cons

There are little cons: sometimes a person might come in with an emergency that we just can’t solve but we rely on the emergency transport services, paramedics. Sometimes the waiting room is overcrowded.

In general, my work as a GP is very fluid, fulfilling and enjoyable.

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