In spite of medicine's increasing complexity and sophistication, country doctors
who still practice in rural areas find themselves very welcome indeed. Providing
healthcare to underserved populations entails unique challenges and huge personal
rewards. It is also possible to be a specialist in an urban area or to conduct
research in a large medical center. Options are many and varied.
Medical Careers
Two types of physicians are licensed by the state of Florida: the MD - Doctor of Medicine (allopath), and the DO - Doctor of Osteopathy (osteopath). Both MDs and DOs use all accepted methods of treatment, including drugs and surgery, and both reserve the same license and privileges. Physicians may be generalists or specialize in a particular area of medicine such as family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, surgery, neurology, radiology, and ophthalmology. Podiatrists, who specialize in problems of the human foot, are described in this section.
As medicine has expanded, the need for associated professionals has emerged. The physician assistant works under the direction and supervision of a physician and relieves the physician of many of the routine responsibilities of patient care. This allows the physician to spend more time on other patient care needs. Nurse practitioners also assume many patient care responsibilities formerly performed only by physicians (covered in the Nursing section). These are only a few of the associated professionals. You will read about others in other sections.
