How do you know what to do?

Bigredmed
Sun, 08 Jul 2007 17:23:44 +0000

That’s not entirely accurate to say that you only know hospital situations.

All residency programs in all fields (at least where applicable - like pathology isn’t applicable) have outpatient clinic sections as part of their education process. You do have to go to clinic. For example, Pediatric residents are required to do one half day of continuity clinic per week. That’s in addition to blocks of time which require you to be on outpatient service for months at a time. There is exposure.

As for the “real” answer to your question - it’s rare for someone just out of residency to start their own solo practice unless they are going to a small town where there hasn’t been a physician for a while…It’s much more common for those going into private, non-hospital based practice to join an already established office with at least a couple physicians already in place and to use their facilities/staff. After a year or two of working for that office, usually they’ll let you buy in to the partnership to become a more integral part of the team. Usually it’s only later will you see a practitioner go solo after they’ve already established their patient base.