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DNB Family Medicine - Is it right for me?

Hello all DNB Broad Speciality Aspirant,
The counselling for dnb has started and we are getting a lot of queries regarding wheather to join family medicine or not. Everybody is in confusion regarding family medicine. So I thought of writing this article describing some points about Family Medicine so that all FM aspirants can make a informed choice.

This post is not a advice or justification to whether family medicine as a course is a good choice or bad.

First things first

No one other than you yourself is a better judge of your future and career. So read this, consult your seniors but finally sit down with calm head and analyse yourself before making final decision.

Now next thing is and this not only applies for family medicine but all the branches. Ask yourself that will you be satisfied with the course, because your happiness and satisfaction is important. If you are satisfied, any kind of hurdle wont affect you and you will find the solution anyway but if you are not happy then even if you take radiology you will find some problems with it.

About Family Medicine..

Course Outline
  1. Family medicine is designed to produce general practitioners. During the three yrs training the students are posted to all major departments like Medicine, Surgery, OBG, paediatrics for 6 months each. Other times the candidates are posted in ICUs, ER and other minor departments like Ophthal, ENT, community medicine etc.
  2. According to NBE, there should be theory lectures about all fields starting from Anatomy and till Medicine.
  3. In short all the subjects are dealt in brief.

Prospects after Family Medicine.

  1. DNB FM is a good branch if you are considering private practice. There is no one stopping you to become a good general physician.
  2. If you are in Metros, many hospitals and corporates are employing DNB FM as SR in depatments like Gen. Medicine, and other superspecialities like Neurology, Nephrology etc. I have seen some FM also raising upto the posts of consultants. 
  3. In small cities, the job prospects are variable.

What after DNB FM?

  1. DNB FM candidates are not eligible for main stream super speciality courses like DM, MCH or DNB SS. I have heard some people saying that after family medicine you can go for superspeciality but as of writing this article it’s a myth and a wrong statement.
  2. Although there are some universities and institutes which are offering Post-doctoral certificates and fellowships after family medicine, for example Fellowship in Diabetes, Fellowship in Dialysis Medicine, Fellowship in Critical Care etc.

Problems with Family Medicine

  1. Its sad to mention but there are some problems with family medicine too. As my idea of this post is to provide all the information about i have about FM so i will mention negetives also so you can make a better informed choice. Most of the institutes do not follow the set curriculum by NBE and employ FM residents as their JRs in any department they want.
  2. Our govt. does not support FM as a branch. This is the saddest thing. Still there are no vacancies in Govt. for FM specialist. Although Govt has the proposal to introduce some posts for family physicians in near future.
  3. Attitude among our community. Still FM is considered as inferior.

So finally is this branch right for me?

  1. I think it is right for you if you have tried your best to get a PG in other branches and u do not have capacity to try again, FM is much better than just a MBBS. 
  2. It is good if you have your own setup and you do not want to waste one more year in preparation. You can easily go for it at some good institutes.

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