Hooked on Primary Care with Jennifer Bacani McKenney, MD, FAAFP

Jennifer Bacani McKenney

When I was in elementary school, I would spend my afternoons after school in the back room of my dad’s medical clinic. He was a general surgeon who also did primary care. I would run charts around the office and file papers. I watched him care for patients in the clinic, went with him on house calls, and occasionally did rounds with him at the hospital.

I noticed that he often received gifts from his patients, such as pies, fishing tackle, tickets to sporting events, and twice he received a goat — one a fainting goat and one my short-term pet Peaches. The only thing I knew was that he must do something very special for people for them to give him all these great things.

As I entered medical school and experienced the gamut of specialties, I recognized the work my dad did in our hometown and the family docs I encountered. Although I had suspected family medicine was for me, it was then that I knew that I would be a family physician, one who cared for patients in different settings and hopefully one who one day, through my service to others, would deserve my very own goat.

Jennifer Bacani McKenney, MD, FAAFP
Physician Owner, Bacani/McKenney Clinic
Assistant Dean for Rural Medical Education, University of Kansas Medical Center