Encouraging trainees

So, are you going to specialize or are you going to be just a family doctor?” This is a question we have all heard repeatedly as medical students from friends, from strangers, and even from teachers. I did not know how to respond to this question. Because I knew that family medicine was well recognized and respected as its own specialty, I believed that what I was being asked reflected an old, entrenched way of thinking and that things would be different when I entered residency. I believed that, as a family medicine resident, I would no longer experience this awkward feeling of trying to defend my choice