Family Medicine Midwest from a Medical Student's Perspective

The following piece was written by first-year University of Minnesota medical student Kyle Lau and describes his experience at the 2016 Family Medicine Midwest Conference.

First-year University of Minnesota
medical student Kyle Lau

Thank you for supporting my travel to the Midwest Family Medicine Conference. My experience in Indianapolis has strengthened my passion to pursue family medicine.

I was inspired by leaders like Dr. Clif Knight and Dr. Michael LeFevre who shared their perspectives and stories on family medicine. Also, I was able to connect with students from other medical schools and share ideas on how we can promote family medicine at each of our institutions.

Attending this conference was especially important for alleviating my concerns about entering family medicine. By understanding that my peers and predecessors have all had the same worries as me, it gave me a sense of unity and strength that I could draw from to overcome my challenges as a family physician.

Coming from a low socioeconomic background and continuing to work as I attend medical school, I became distracted by how other specialties could provide more financial support than family medicine. I was misguided on how other specialties receive the majority of the prestige and was measuring my success in ways that did not truly matter to me. I needed a reminder on why I went into medicine. A reminder on how I first fell in love with the service of medicine. I went into medicine because I could form long-lasting, trusting relationships with my patients and make a difference in my community. Coming to this conference allowed me to realign my values and pursue my vocation.

Another reason why I was worried about going into family medicine was because I cowered at the thought of being the only physician for my community. I am afraid that there will come times when I am not enough to serve the needs of my community. I am afraid I will not be able to provide adequate care because I do not have enough resources, enough bed space, enough knowledge, or worse, not enough compassion because I was working long hours.

Yet attending this conference connected me with peers and mentors that share and have overcome these same concerns. Dr. LeFevre discussed the future of medicine and said that we will never have everything our communities need, but we are all they have.

And when we give our best efforts and put our patients first, everything else will fall into place. Throughout my medical journey, I need to hold onto that sacred trust between my patients and me and have faith that I will be able to make a difference in their lives as a family physician.

Thank you,
Kyle Lau