What does a family practice physician do?
Family practice physicians provide comprehensive medical care services to each family member. These services may include disease diagnosis and treatment, family planning, and immunizations. They typically have undergone specialty training on the various primary care disciplines, including preventive care, pediatric medicine, and OB care. They are responsible for diagnosing and treating illnesses and medical conditions, providing routine health screenings, and advising patients on lifestyle changes to prevent diseases. Family practice physicians supervise physician assistants, medical assistants, and nurses and coordinate with occupational and rehabilitation therapists on a patient's behalf.
Family practice physician responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real family practice physician resumes:
- Manage conditions including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, hypothyroidism, asthma, and GERD.
- Provide and perform x-rays and EKG upon doctor's request.
- Perform EHR practice assessments and work and documentation flow analysis and redesign.
- Review EHR on an as needed basis per missing information or documentation.
- Review and help select EMR and transition providers and clinics to the new system.
- Float to various departments such as the emergency room, ICU, and geriatric psych.
- Develop programs to provide quality care while decreasing LOS in ICU and improving ventilator times.
- Review for presence and completeness of the documentation according to Medicare, Medicaid or other carrier requirements.
- Perform injections, throat cultures, EKGs, PT/INR and glucose tests, drug screens, and urinalysis.
- Coordinate work with nurses, social workers, rehabilitation therapists, pharmacists, psychologists, and other health care providers.
- Perform phlebotomy, EKG's, injections, vaccinations, pap smears, urinalysis, pregnancy tests and school physicals.
- Perform nevi excision and suturing.
- Test glucose and administer injections.
- Serve as primary or secondary surgical assistant during surgery rotation.
- Perform ambulatory minor surgery and help as first surgical assistant.
Family practice physician skills and personality traits
We calculated that 22% of Family Practice Physicians are proficient in Patients, Family Practice, 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 Practice Physicians that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 22%
Trained customer physicians to establish standard clinical practices advocating patients' best interests and health outcomes and troubleshooting difficult patient cases.
- Family Practice, 19%
Have extensive experience as a Family Practice Physician which includes working at times in Urgent care settings.
- Primary Care, 14%
Direct operations for 32 Primary Care physician practices (63 providers) within a 6 hospital network.
- Urgent Care, 11%
Enacted sweeping compliance measures to remedy regulatory deficiencies, including those involving urgent care, medication handling, and radiology orders.
- EMR, 8%
Trained all users in the use of Practice Management and EMR system.
- Internal Medicine, 4%
Practice terminated to return to Dallas for residency training Internal Medicine.
Most family practice physicians use their skills in "patients," "family practice," and "primary care" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential family practice physician responsibilities here:
Communication skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a family practice physician to have is communication skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "physicians and surgeons need to be excellent communicators." Family practice physicians often use communication skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "provided excellent customer service and communication with physicians' practices regarding their patients' records"
Compassion. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling family practice physician duties is compassion. The role rewards competence in this skill because "patients who are sick or injured may be in extreme pain or distress." According to a family practice physician resume, here's how family practice physicians can utilize compassion in their job responsibilities: "required attention to detail, confidentiality, adherence to each doctor's individual preferences, accuracy, and compassion for patients. "
Detail oriented. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of family practice physicians is detail oriented. This skill is critical to many everyday family practice physician duties, as "patients must receive appropriate treatment and medications." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "required detailed knowledge of medicare, medicaid, and commercial insurance claim filing process. "
Dexterity. family practice physician responsibilities often require "dexterity." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "physicians and surgeons may work with very precise and sometimes sharp tools, and mistakes can have serious consequences." This resume example shows what family practice physicians do with dexterity on a typical day: "conducted hands-on minor surgical procedures such as homeostasis, debridement, suturing and dressing the wound. "
Leadership skills. A commonly-found skill in family practice physician job descriptions, "leadership skills" is essential to what family practice physicians do. Family practice 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 practice physician duties rely on leadership skills in this resume example: "maintain collaborative relationships with health system and hospital c-suite leadership. "
Organizational skills. Another skill commonly found on family practice physician job descriptions is "organizational skills." It can come up quite often in family practice physician duties, since "good recordkeeping and other organizational skills are critical in both medical and business settings." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day family practice physician responsibilities: "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 practice physicians are:
- Banner Health152 family practice physicians jobs
- All Medical Personnel78 family practice physicians jobs
- Curative53 family practice physicians jobs
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Compare different family practice physicians
Family practice physician vs. Doctor
A doctor is a medical expert who diagnoses and treats illnesses and injuries, often specializing in particular areas. Their responsibilities revolve around conducting initial interviews and examinations, studying a patient's medical history and laboratory results, providing consultations and care advice, prescribing medication, and referring patients to specialists when necessary. They must also coordinate and maintain an active communication line with nurses, administrators, and technicians for a smooth workflow. Moreover, a doctor must educate patients about their health conditions, helping them understand their situation better.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, family practice physician responsibilities require skills like "urgent care," "health system," "acute care," and "rehabilitation." Meanwhile a typical doctor has skills in areas such as "emergency medicine," "dr," "strong work ethic," and "cleanliness." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Doctors really shine in the health care industry with an average salary of $178,767. Comparatively, family practice physicians tend to make the most money in the health care industry with an average salary of $196,940.doctors tend to reach similar levels of education than family practice physicians. In fact, doctors are 2.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 8.8% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Family practice 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.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real family practice physician resumes. While family practice physician responsibilities can utilize skills like "urgent care," "pediatrics," "private practice," and "health system," medical doctors use skills like "diagnosis," "emergency medicine," "medical services," and "emergency room."
On average, medical doctors earn a lower salary than family practice physicians. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, medical doctors earn the most pay in the transportation industry with an average salary of $180,010. Whereas family practice physicians have higher pay in the health care industry, with an average salary of $196,940.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Medical doctors tend to reach similar levels of education than family practice physicians. In fact, they're 4.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 8.8% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for family practice 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 practice physician vs. Chiropractor, sole practitioner
A physician liaison specializes in helping medical facilities build positive relationships with physicians in a community. Typically working at the business development and sales offices, a physical liaison is responsible for meeting with physicians to introduce and promote the facility and its services, discuss referrals and patient care, and help physicians connect with surgeons and specialists for patient referral. Furthermore, a physician liaison must produce regular progress reports, coordinating with office managers while adhering to the facility's policies and regulations.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from family practice physician resumes include skills like "patients," "family practice," "primary care," and "urgent care," whereas a chiropractor, sole practitioner is more likely to list skills in "litigation," "real estate transactions," "probate," and "bench trials. "
When it comes to education, chiropractors, sole practitioner tend to earn similar degree levels compared to family practice physicians. In fact, they're 4.6% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 28.6% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Family practice physician vs. Physician liaison
Types of family practice physician
Updated January 8, 2025
