Procedures in family medicine (rural)

[bj89]

Hey folks, i'm just wondering if someone knows about what kind of office procedures rural family docs perform? I am interested in family medicine but I also want a specialty that performs some procedures for the technical aspect of it. Thanks!

[frozenarbitor]

Originally Posted by bj89

Hey folks, i'm just wondering if someone knows about what kind of office procedures rural family docs perform? I am interested in family medicine but I also want a specialty that performs some procedures for the technical aspect of it. Thanks!

I shadowed a rural gp for a weekend in southern alberta. i think most if not all gp/family doctor there take turns covering the emergency and icu at the community hospital there. The gp i shadowed isn't even the 2 plus 1 er. Just ccfp. He did quite a number of suturing for minor cuts to the scalp, arm, leg, and so on. Im not sure about office procedures, but you do get to do procedures like that in rural emergency room.

[HycrestJIT]

In the office, a rural FM practitioner and urban FM practitioner perform most of the same procedures depending on comfort level. Rural FMs tend to perform more themselves due to the impracticality of referring a patient for a 4 hour winter drive for an IUD insertion, local skin excision, etc. It basically depends on your comfort level as a practitioner and your training.

Where rural and urban FMs tend to differ is when ER and hospital work comes into play.

[Mandibular]

vasectomies!!!
kyste/ lipoma excisions

[bj89]

Thanks for the replies everyone. So it really seems like you can do what you feel proficient in depending on what you learned in residency. Thats why I love rural med - you really are the jack of all trades (kind of) :P

[tooty]

circumcisions

[Dream Big]

Hey,

I did most of my clerkship in a rural town in Southern Alberta. There were 12 GPs in the town to give you a sense of the size of it.

The docs there did many procedures in the office and while doing impatient/emerg work.
Procedures included:
-Skin biopsies - excisional and punch
-Laceration repairs including tendon repairs
-Vasectomies
-Chest Tubes
-LPs
-Deliveries and vaginal tear repairs
-Paracentesis
-circumcision
-IUD

The list goes on.

One of the docs had a special interest in GI and did some extra training and does all the scopes in town. Another doc did some extra training in surgery and does appendectomies, c sections, hydroceles, tubal ligations, and some laparoscopic stuff.

Basically if you have an interest/additional training if needed and there is a need in the community you are working in you can do it.

PM me if you have specific questions.

[A-Stark]

Originally Posted by Dream Big

The docs there did many procedures in the office and while doing impatient/emerg work.

Freudian slip?

[thebouque]

Originally Posted by Dream Big

One of the docs had a special interest in GI and did some extra training and does all the scopes in town. Another doc did some extra training in surgery and does appendectomies, c sections, hydroceles, tubal ligations, and some laparoscopic stuff.

Hey,

What kind of laparoscopic interventions were the GPs doing ? I have to say that I'm quite surprised to hear that GPs perform lap surgeries.

[A-Stark]

Presumably they did additional training? Lap appes and choles aren't necessarily that complicated, but what if there is a need to convert to open and there's no surgeon at that centre?