What does a Family Physician do?
A family physician specializes in providing health care services to an entire family, regardless of age, health condition, or gender. Aside from conducting regular check-ups and consultations, they serve as a family's primary contact when health problems occur. Among their responsibilities include maintaining a family's health records, helping families navigate through the healthcare system, coordinating with insurance companies, and referring them to other specialists when necessary. Moreover, a family physician builds positive relationships with clients, helping them feel comfortable every step of the way.
Family physician responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real family physician resumes:
- Manage complicated and often difficult to control chronic medical conditions in patients with limit resources.
- Examine patients, using medical instruments and equipment; elicit and record information about patient's medical history.
- Perform hematology, chemistry and immunology screen test to provide immediate results for diagnosis.
- Provide overall quality prenatal health care, gynecological services, patient triage, refer patients with complications, provide patient education service
- Case, endotracheal intubation and artificial mechanical ventilation to which it require, bladder catheterizations rectal and nasogastric.
Family physician skills and personality traits
We calculated that 28% of Family Physicians are proficient in Patients, Family Medicine, and Primary Care. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Compassion, and Detail oriented.
We break down the percentage of Family Physicians that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 28%
Examined patients, using medical instruments and equipment; elicited and recorded information about patient's medical history.
- Family Medicine, 26%
Provide comprehensive family medicine services to Soldiers, family members and retirees from age's birth to geriatric.
- Primary Care, 15%
Assisted in the conversion of an urgent care center to a primary care practice.
- Urgent Care, 8%
Expanded procedure knowledge, assessment of x-rays, long-term care needs, and urgent care.
- EMR, 7%
Implemented EMR system-wide to all practice locations, dramatically improving medical documentation and optimizing charges for services by approximately $350K.
- Internal Medicine, 3%
Founded and ran a highly successful internal medicine practice in Mumbai India.
Most family physicians use their skills in "patients," "family medicine," and "primary care" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential family physician responsibilities here:
Communication skills. The most essential soft skill for a family physician to carry out their responsibilities is communication skills. This skill is important for the role because "physicians and surgeons need to be excellent communicators." Additionally, a family physician resume shows how their duties depend on communication skills: "managed smooth and effective communication among physicians, patients, families and staff. "
Compassion. Another essential skill to perform family physician duties is compassion. Family physicians responsibilities require that "patients who are sick or injured may be in extreme pain or distress." Family physicians also use compassion in their role according to a real resume snippet: "demonstrated clinical competency and compassion in providing care and assured continuity of care through appropriate discharge planning. "
Detail oriented. family physicians are also known for detail oriented, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to family physician responsibilities, because "patients must receive appropriate treatment and medications." A family physician resume example shows how detail oriented is used in the workplace: "conduct evaluation on case management patients to establish in detail and specificity the nature of their continuity of care needs. "
Dexterity. For certain family physician responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "dexterity." The day-to-day duties of a family physician rely on this skill, as "physicians and surgeons may work with very precise and sometimes sharp tools, and mistakes can have serious consequences." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what family physicians do: "gained extensive hands on experience in acute care of adult, pediatric/neonatal and pregnant patients. "
Leadership skills. A commonly-found skill in family physician job descriptions, "leadership skills" is essential to what family physicians do. Family physician responsibilities rely on this skill because "physicians who work in their own practice must manage a staff of other professionals." You can also see how family physician duties rely on leadership skills in this resume example: "provided goal-driven patient care and strategic team leadership for a primary care office with multiple physicians and mid-level providers. "
Organizational skills. Lastly, "organizational skills" is an important element of what a family physician does. Family physician responsibilities require this skill because "good recordkeeping and other organizational skills are critical in both medical and business settings." This resume example highlights how family physician duties rely on this skill: "track individual and organizational metrics on a daily basis to ensure quality patient care, and meet organizational goals. "
The three companies that hire the most family physicians are:
- Sea Mar Community Health Centers45 family physicians jobs
- Novant Health37 family physicians jobs
- WellSpan Health13 family physicians jobs
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Compare different family physicians
Family physician vs. Medical doctor
A Medical Doctor, also known as a physician, is a healthcare professional who diagnoses and treats patients from injuries and illnesses. As a Medical Doctor, your day-to-day duties will typically include assessing a patient's symptoms, prescribing and administering treatment to patients, and providing follow-up medical care to patients. You will be responsible for interpreting patients' laboratory results and referring them to other providers when needed. Also, you will need to work closely with other healthcare professionals and promote health education.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a family physician are more likely to require skills like "family medicine," "ob," "urgent care," and "advanced life support." On the other hand, a job as a medical doctor requires skills like "patient care," "family practice," "medical services," and "emergency room." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Medical doctors earn the highest salaries when working in the transportation industry, with an average yearly salary of $180,010. On the other hand, family physicians are paid more in the health care industry with an average salary of $198,271.On average, medical doctors reach similar levels of education than family physicians. Medical doctors are 0.4% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 19.4% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Family physician vs. Chiropractor, sole practitioner
A General Practitioner provides primary and continuing medical care for patients within their community. They are responsible for diagnosing patients, checking patients results, and providing treatment as required.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, family physician responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "patients," "family medicine," "primary care," and "ob." Meanwhile, a chiropractor, sole practitioner has duties that require skills in areas such as "litigation," "real estate transactions," "probate," and "bench trials." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Chiropractors, sole practitioner earn similar levels of education than family physicians in general. They're 1.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 19.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for Family Physicians in the next 3-5 years?
Janet Williams Ph.D.
Professor of Biology, College of Our Lady of the Elms
Possibly, a little further out, will be genome sequencing to determine health risks for patients. It might even be able to prescribe lifestyle and nutrition best-practices for individuals, based on their genetics.
Family physician vs. General practitioner
A professor of family medicine is a medical expert who facilitates discussions and lectures for future medical practitioners. Their responsibilities revolve around developing teaching strategies, creating lesson and assessment plans, organizing activities and projects, preparing coursework, and monitoring the progress of students. They may also participate in studies, utilizing their expertise for discoveries. Furthermore, as a professor of family medicine, it is essential to lead and encourage students to reach their potentials, all while maintaining a safe and productive learning environment for everyone.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a family physician is likely to be skilled in "family medicine," "ob," "urgent care," and "emr," while a typical general practitioner is skilled in "outpatient clinic," "emergency room," "oral surgery," and "patient care."
General practitioners earn the best pay in the health care industry, where they command an average salary of $154,946. Family physicians earn the highest pay from the health care industry, with an average salary of $198,271.Most general practitioners achieve a similar degree level compared to family physicians. For example, they're 1.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 13.4% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Family physician vs. Professor of family medicine
Types of family physician
Updated January 8, 2025
