What does a Family Practitioner do?
Family practitioners are medical professionals who are responsible for providing care for an entire family in small and rural communities. By using their knowledge in the medical profession, these doctors are required to diagnose and treat a variety of medical issues while referring patients to an appropriate specialist if medical problems are outside their range of practice. They must participate in well-care visits with their patients to monitor the development of their health as well as perform routine tests such as cholesterol tests and blood pressure readings. Family practitioners must also help women give birth to a child.
Family practitioner responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real family practitioner resumes:
- Manage family health problems, examine patients, perform physical examination.
- Manage conditions including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, hypothyroidism, asthma, and GERD.
- Provide examination, testing, diagnosis, treatment, referral and follow- up care for newborn through geriatrics.
- Provide residential care and emergency medical treatment to incapacitate elderly patients
- Operate electrocardiogram equipment to administer diagnostic testing (EKG).
- Ensure patient and family understanding of diagnosis treatment and all accompanying relevant information.
- Develop an ambulatory pediatrics curriculum for family medicine residents
- Provide general patient oversight across ER, ICU, hospice care, and surgery departments.
- Develop an ambulatory pediatrics curriculum for family medicine residents
Family practitioner skills and personality traits
We calculated that 32% of Family Practitioners are proficient in Family Medicine, Patients, and Family Practice. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Compassion, and Detail oriented.
We break down the percentage of Family Practitioners that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Family Medicine, 32%
Worked as a Family Medicine Practitioner.
- Patients, 25%
Provided residential care and emergency medical treatment to incapacitated elderly patients
- Family Practice, 12%
Offered, in additional to traditional family practice, nutritional/biochemical medicine, herbal medicine and homeopathic therapeutics.
- Internal Medicine, 8%
Provide family and internal medicine services for Delta Locum Tenens' client practices with short- and long-term temporary openings for physicians.
- Urgent Care, 7%
Provide quality patient care for this urgent care/ER multi-specialty clinic.
- Pediatrics, 6%
Developed an ambulatory pediatrics curriculum for family medicine residents
Common skills that a family practitioner uses to do their job include "family medicine," "patients," and "family practice." You can find details on the most important family practitioner responsibilities below.
Communication skills. The most essential soft skill for a family practitioner 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 practitioner resume shows how their duties depend on communication skills: "facilitated communication between the spanish speaking clinic and the non-spanish speaking insurance companies for the patients in the largely tourist region. "
Compassion. Many family practitioner duties rely on compassion. "patients who are sick or injured may be in extreme pain or distress," so a family practitioner will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways family practitioner responsibilities rely on compassion: "provided competent, compassionate patient care and worked effectively as a member of the health care team. "
Detail oriented. This is an important skill for family practitioners to perform their duties. For an example of how family practitioner responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "patients must receive appropriate treatment and medications." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a family practitioner: "worked as doctor of medicine recognition of physical exam process and ability to record exam details".
Dexterity. family practitioner 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 practitioners do with dexterity on a typical day: "conducted hands-on minor surgical procedures such as homeostasis, debridement, suturing and dressing the wound. "
Leadership skills. Another crucial skill for a family practitioner to carry out their responsibilities is "leadership skills." A big part of what family practitioners relies on this skill, since "physicians who work in their own practice must manage a staff of other professionals." How this skill relates to family practitioner duties can be seen in an example from a family practitioner resume snippet: "monitored quality and appropriateness of medical care, while providing guidance and leadership for performance guidelines. "
Organizational skills. While "organizational skills" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to family practitioner responsibilities. Much of what a family practitioner does relies on this skill, seeing as "good recordkeeping and other organizational skills are critical in both medical and business settings." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of family practitioners: "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 practitioners are:
- CarolinaEast26 family practitioners jobs
- SSM Health3 family practitioners jobs
- UnitedHealth Group2 family practitioners jobs
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Family practitioner vs. Physician
Physicians' general responsibility is to check, diagnose, and treat a patient's condition to improve their overall wellness. A physician could be General Practitioners or Specialist Physicians, wherein General Practitioners are physicians who provide regular checkups for patients depending on their needs and refer them to a Specialist Physicians who are more skilled in a particular field of expertise for a thorough diagnosis. Physicians monitor a patient's medical history and ensure follow-up checkups to observe if the condition of a patient is changing over time. A physician may refer a patient to other health professionals for further examination as needed.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a family practitioner are more likely to require skills like "family medicine," "pediatrics," "gyn," and "direct patient care." On the other hand, a job as a physician requires skills like "surgery," "patient care," "emr," and "emergency medicine." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Physicians tend to make the most money working in the health care industry, where they earn an average salary of $169,042. In contrast, family practitioners make the biggest average salary, $159,527, in the health care industry.The education levels that physicians earn slightly differ from family practitioners. In particular, physicians are 8.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a family practitioner. Additionally, they're 2.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Family practitioner vs. In-house physician
An In-House Physician is in charge of providing health care services to diagnose and treat the medical conditions of patients within a community or organization. Their responsibilities typically include providing consultations, conducting various tests and examinations, studying a patient's medical history, prescribing medication, developing care and treatment plans, and referring patients to other specialists when necessary. They must also monitor the patients regularly and help them feel comfortable every step of the way. In-House Physicians must maintain an active communication line with nurses and other health care experts for a smooth and efficient workflow.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that family practitioner responsibilities requires skills like "family medicine," "family practice," "rehabilitation," and "private practice." But an in-house physician might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "home health," "surgery," "emr," and "health system."
In-house physicians earn a higher average salary than family practitioners. But in-house physicians earn the highest pay in the media industry, with an average salary of $186,854. Additionally, family practitioners earn the highest salaries in the health care with average pay of $159,527 annually.In general, in-house physicians achieve lower levels of education than family practitioners. They're 9.8% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 2.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for Family Practitioners in the next 3-5 years?
Dr. Haydee Encarnacion-Garcia Ph.D.
Associate Professor, MPH Program Director, Indiana Wesleyan University
Family practitioner vs. Acute care physician
An acute care physician is responsible for providing quality care services for the patients, diagnosing them, and administering medications. These physicians have the same duties as regular physicians, usually working for patients with a short-term illness or those patients recovered from medical conditions that require ongoing treatment and medications. Acute care physicians monitor patients' medical histories, scheduling follow-up checkups, as well as other procedures. They should have excellent communication and organizational skills, and most importantly, the knowledge of the medical industry within their expertise.
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 practitioner resumes include skills like "family medicine," "private practice," "gyn," and "direct patient care," whereas an acute care physician is more likely to list skills in "epic," "icu," "surgery," and "dot. "
Acute care physicians earn the highest salary when working in the non profits industry, where they receive an average salary of $225,585. Comparatively, family practitioners have the highest earning potential in the health care industry, with an average salary of $159,527.Most acute care physicians achieve a lower degree level compared to family practitioners. For example, they're 5.9% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 4.8% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Family practitioner vs. Attending physician
An Attending Physician typically supervises fellows, residents, medical students, and other practitioners. They are responsible for supervising each patient every day, reviewing treatment plans with residents, and supervising patient management documents.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between family practitioners and attending physicians, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a family practitioner might have more use for skills like "family medicine," "family practice," "urgent care," and "pediatrics." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of attending physicians require skills like "surgery," "bls," "emergency room," and "emergency medicine. "
Attending physicians enjoy the best pay in the health care industry, with an average salary of $168,816. For comparison, family practitioners earn the highest salary in the health care industry.attending physicians reach lower levels of education compared to family practitioners, in general. The difference is that they're 9.3% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 2.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of family practitioner
Updated January 8, 2025