March 17 , 2025
By Mikala Cessac
Student Member of the AAFP Board of Directors
As I walked through the interest group fair during orientation week at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, I was overwhelmed by the thought of choosing one specialty for the rest of my career.
Each booth was filled with eager students handing out candy and stickers. Of course, they also wanted something: my email address so I could be notified about their interest group meetings. Harmless signs touting groups for students interested in general surgery, orthopedics and pediatrics suddenly made me feel as if adding my name to a list would cosmically contract me to a lifelong commitment.
I left the fair without signing up for a single interest group. When recounting this uncertainty to a faculty physician a few weeks later, they gave me a simple but amazing tip: “Do what you love, and the specialty will follow.”
I took this advice, jumping in headfirst with organizations I was drawn to. I soon had the opportunity to work as one of five student directors leading MedZou, the student-run free clinic in our community. Some of my responsibilities included working with my fellow classmates to obtain free medications through our pharmacy, coordinating blood pressure and blood sugar readings at community events, and helping patients navigate signing up for Medicaid.
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Aug. 2 event in Kansas City, Missouri.
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We worked alongside three family physician advisors who worked tirelessly to meet patients’ diverse needs. From finding solutions that helped patients overcome cost barriers to medications or taking the extra time to connect them with community resources, these family physicians showed up every week to ensure patients could get the care they needed.
During my second year of medical school, I attended my first advocacy day at the Missouri State Capitol, where I was able to talk directly with legislators about some of the issues facing both physicians and patients. Although this opportunity was open to all specialties, family physicians were a prominent force, leading the way in these important conversations.
As I entered my third-year clinical rotations, I kept an open mind for each specialty I rotated through. Although I loved all my subspecialty rotations, I found myself frustrated when I was told that a patient’s concerns were “out of our scope.” More than once, I told a patient to go see their primary care physician for an issue we wouldn’t be able to address in a specialty clinic.
However, during my family medicine clinical rotation, I had the opportunity to work in my community’s federally qualified health center, serving patients from diverse places and backgrounds. In this setting, I was faced with many challenges: switching between different translators, coordinating behavioral health interventions, working with pregnant patients who may have had limited access to care. We worked with patients to overcome many obstacles.
Even though this rotation was frustrating at times, I found myself enjoying the diversity and breadth of the work. We listened and addressed each concern to the best of our ability. I watched as the family physician I worked with broke down barriers with patients who had historical or personal distrust of the medical system. Ultimately, each encounter pushed me to think of new ways to best take care of the whole patient beyond just their presented disease.
As I reflected on my experiences, I realized that at each turn family physicians were leading the way and doing important work that I wanted to do. The physicians breaking down barriers in the exam rooms were the same physicians leading the community clinics and the same physicians fighting for their patients at the Capitol.
I recently had the opportunity to advocate for primary care in Washington, D.C. Once again, I was surrounded by family physicians who stood beside me as we fought for Medicaid protections for vulnerable patients and investment in primary care.
This is what drew me so strongly to family medicine: the ability to care and advocate for the patient in and out of the exam room.
I see family medicine as a vessel to practice social justice for patients who may have previously fallen through the cracks in the health care system. Whether it be in the clinic room or the state Capitol, it was important to me to find a specialty that fought for the patient as a whole person.
I wanted the opportunity to meet people where they are and walk with them in their health journey, even if the road presented obstacles. Family medicine was always right in front of me. As I think back to that advice I was given at the beginning of medical school, I consider myself fortunate to say that the things I love and the specialty that followed are now one.
