Hooked on Primary Care with Taree Chadwick

Reflections on match day

I knew from day one of medical school that family medicine was for me. I wanted to be able to do a little bit of everything and treat people of all ages.

As I moved through clinical rotations in school, I was one of those students who enjoyed every rotation. I always thought “Yeah, I could do a little bit of this,” and the more and more I found myself learning everything that family medicine was, the more my passion for it grew. We are the only specialty that gets to see pregnant people, deliver that baby, see that baby in the newborn nursery and clinic, and continue to follow that patient into high school and college, through adulthood and all the way until the end of their life.

We get to do a little bit of everything — be a team doctor for a sports team, care for gender-diverse individuals providing gender-affirming care, talk end of life plans with a family, see immigrants and refugee populations, and discuss family planning. We can work in EDs, urgent care clinics, hospitals and community clinics — we can do it all!

Because we care for entire families and generations, we get to see everyone in a community and can better understand their needs. That becomes one of our most effective tools in advocating for the health of not only our patients but the community in which they live. We are perfectly positioned to be able to provide equitable care for patients and communities who are historically underserved. Family medicine physicians have the capacity to use their voice at the community, state and federal level, effecting change and advocating for patients. Seeing how my voice as a future family physician can be used and trusted in these spaces is exciting and one of the big reasons I continue to be motivated and inspired by this specialty.

Taree Chadwick
Student member, American Academy of Family Physicians Board of Directors
Fourth-year medical student at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine