careernav.

General Description

This is an ideal career for analytical and logical thinkers. As a general practitioner, you assess and treat a wide range of conditions, ailments, and injuries, from sinus and respiratory infections to broken bones and scrapes; refer more serious conditions to specialists for more intensive care.

Career Advice - General Internist Career

Specialist physicians broadly work in anaesthesiology, family and general medicine, general internal medicine, general paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry and surgery.

General internists focus on nonsurgical treatment for diseases and injuries of internal organ systems such as the heart, stomach, kidneys, liver and digestive tract. You treat internal disorders, such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and problems of the lung, brain, kidney, and gastrointestinal tract. You use medication and are usually called upon as primary care specialist, having patients referred to you by other specialists.

Your work as an internist covers a wide range of treatments. You advise on diet, activity, hygiene, and disease prevention. You make diagnoses when different illnesses occur together, or in situations where the diagnosis may be obscure. You immunize patients to protect them from preventable diseases. You manage and treat common health problems such as infections, influenza and pneumonia, as well as serious, chronic, and complex illnesses, whether in adolescents, adults, and the elderly. Your methodology is primarily based upon medication therapy as part of a long-term, comprehensive medical care plan

You may elect to conduct research to develop or test medications or treatments to prevent or control disease or injury. Some internists plan and implement health programs in businesses or in communities, as a preventative measure against injury and illness. From time to time you may be asked to prepare government or organizational reports on birth, death, and disease statistics, workforce evaluations, or the medical status of individuals.

What you do every day

There are days for hospital rounds, days for patient consultation and days for your research and analysis. Irrespective like your medical peers, you start early and finish late and your career commences as a resident working in the major hospitals.

Residency is tough, hard work with long days commencing at 6.30am in the operating room and finishing once the surgeons’ patient list is completed. Your day usually ends around 6pm but once every four nights you may finish at 8am, a 26 hour shift.

Patients trust you and you need to be there for them. Medical training is exhausting, and rewarding both financially and in terms of personal satisfaction. Many physicians and surgeons work long, irregular hours; almost one-third of physicians work 60 or more hours a week.

Personality that best fits this occupation

You must have a desire to serve patients, compassion towards others, be self-motivated, and be able to survive the pressures and long hours of medical education and practice. You also must have a good bedside manner, excellent communication skills, emotional stability and the self confidence to make decisions in emergencies. Ongoing study throughout your career is necessary to keep up with medical advances so you must have a high degree of motivation and self discipline.

Employment opportunities will continue to expand due to a growing and ageing population which will inevitably increase demand for physician services.

Best thing about this career

You can make a huge difference to your patients' lives and to the communities you serve. You are challenged every day as people are different and medical technology constantly changes. The financial rewards can be substantial, so you can afford an affluent lifestyle, but in the end the status, respect and trust afforded to you is the greatest reward.

Worst thing about this career

The downsides of a medical career are: the long time it takes to finally become qualified, knowing that despite what you do people will die anyway, the long hours, and the difficulty in maintaining a work-life balance. There is a growing culture of litigation across the medical industry which has made medical indemnity a topical issue in some specialisations.