I Just Couldn’t Do It Anymore
I would seriously drive home from a shift at the FQHC and wonder what was wrong with me. Why couldn’t I just put my head down and grind it out? Why couldn’t I get over the fact that I was having to chart from home after dealing with very sick patients in very short windows of time and getting behind on my schedule?
Only 4 months after getting out of the Army, I was already contemplating leaving medicine. I couldn’t take it anymore. Every day another moral injury, knowing that I wasn’t really even practicing medicine. Doing med reviews and refilling prescriptions in the 5 minutes I actually got to spend with my patients was not medicine.
Fortunately, I had heard about Direct Primary Care from an Army buddy. He shared some material with me that I remembered reading over. I decided to do a Google search and found that there was only one DPC practice in my area (Fayetteville, NC). I reached out to the owner and asked if she would let me shadow her. She graciously did and changed my life forever.
“You’re a PA right? You Treat Patients Don’t You?”
That was the response the owner of the local DPC told me when I asked her if she thought I was ready to run my own practice. I was surprised! It’s not every day that a physician expresses so much confidence in PAs.
But she went on to explain that the beauty of DPC is that it emphasizes relationships with patients. Meaning, unlike the insurance model where there is a need to take on as many patients as possible, even if you don’t feel ready, DPC practices aren’t about quantity but quality.
This means that we can interview our patients and invite them to interview us. This way we both can make an informed decisions about our ability to serve them well. I wouldn’t have to take on every patient that walked through my door because I frankly would not be able to.
So, with her encouragement, I started up TrueCare DPC and am now enjoying the freedom and restored passion that DPC has given me and my patients. I now want to pay it forward by helping you!