How To Become An Family Practice MD: What It Is and Career Path

What is an family practice md and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Janet Williams Ph.D.

As a family practice MD, you will focus on providing comprehensive care to patients of all ages and through all stages of life. As a family practice MD, you will treat a large variety of different health conditions, oversee preventive care, and are an expert at managing ordinary complaints.

As a family practice MD, you will manage the chronic illness of your patients. These include strokes, heart diseases, asthma, diabetes, and cancer. You will also help through each step of their illness. Family practice MDs spend four years in pre-med courses, four years in medical school, and three years in a residency or a total of 11 years in training.

Some medical schools may offer accelerated programs, but you will need extensive training in anatomy, psychology, physiology and have an undue measure of compassion. The beginning earning potential of a family practice MD begins at $200,000 per year and increases as your experiences increase.

What general advice would you give to an family practice md?

Janet Williams Ph.D.

Professor of Biology, College of Our Lady of the Elms

Students who wish to continue their education in healthcare (MD, DO, DMD, DVM, PA, PT, OT, and many other areas), should ensure that they have plenty of experience in healthcare by becoming certified as an EMT or CNA, and spend at least 1-2 years working or volunteering in that capacity. Students should graduate with strong GPAs, over 3.5 on a 4.0 scale, and should have taken all of their prerequisite courses. Students should be prepared to take standardized admissions exams, and plan to do well in them.

ScoreFamily Practice MDUS Average

Salary

10.0

Avg. Salary $312,358

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

1.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 19.08%

Black or African American 5.22%

Hispanic or Latino 9.70%

Unknown 4.47%

White 61.37%

Gender

female 75.31%

male 24.69%

Age - 48

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 48

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.1

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an family practice md

Explore family practice md education requirements

Most common family practice md degrees

Bachelor's

33.9 %

Certificate

14.0 %

Associate

13.1 %

Start to develop specific family practice md skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	33.68%
Family Practice	21.88%
Primary Care	16.31%
EMR	11.73%
Internal Medicine	3.31%

Complete relevant family practice md training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 4-10 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New family practice mds learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an family practice md based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real family practice md resumes.

Research family practice md duties and responsibilities

Manage conditions including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, hypothyroidism, asthma, and GERD.
Perform history and physical exams of patients requiring primary care services including preventative, acute and chronic disease management.
Provide complete primary, preventative and integrative care to patients including simple in-office procedures as appropriate.
Experience with electronic medical records and the coordination and distribution of professional documents in accordance to HIPAA regulations.

Prepare your family practice md resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your family practice md resume.

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