STFM Member Josue Santos, MD, is a family medicine resident at Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Dr Santos is a 2020 Faculty for Tomorrow Resident Scholar.

Josue's Story: My passion for family medicine began in the summer of 1995 when my brother and I witnessed the medical care my father received as a type 2 diabetic requiring daily insulin injections. 

Each morning, we spent 2 hours waiting for a nurse to check my father's blood sugar and administer his insulin. We were surprised to learn that a visit to the doctor was an all-day affair and that we "got off easy" because we were only there for his injection.

As time passed, my father began to limit his visits to the clinic until he stopped going altogether. I will never know the circumstances behind his decision to stop seeing his doctor. Could it have been the mile walk or long waits in the lobby? Was he limited by poor health literacy, or did he just fall through the proverbial crack? 

In 2004, 3 weeks before leaving for my first deployment, I received a letter from the Sergeant Major of the Red Cross. He explained that the Red Cross gets involved when a family member is medically cleared as having only days to live. My father died a few short hours after I arrived, and to this day, I wonder if his death could have been avoided by a caring family physician who understood the psychosocial dynamics involved in his decision to stop seeking care. Perhaps, that same family physician could have intervened and encouraged continued treatment or home-based care as an alternative.

To be a family physician is to leverage the power of relationships, strengthening the bond between patient and physician and improving health outcomes. My passion for family medicine stems from fostering these relationships and their downstream effects. 

The scope of a family physician is often as diverse as the patient populations being served. This breadth of knowledge and practice attracts medical students to the field, and new physicians, enamored by endless possibilities, choose a family medicine residency based on future aspirations for patient care. It is the role of faculty and community preceptors to understand, engage, and shape these new physician experiences as a means to meeting education and career goals. 

Post-residency, my role as a family physician will be that of a junior faculty mentor in a full-spectrum family medicine residency program. I will lead by example, staying up-to-date on the latest research and procedural skills, while supporting those physicians providing “cradle to the grave” care for patients and their families. 

STFM members, old and young, male and female, of all colors, creeds, backgrounds, and orientations, have supported, nurtured, questioned, and enlightened me throughout my career. They have advised me when words of support were needed, chastised me when I ventured too far afield, and guided me through the many challenges of being a family physician and family medicine educator.

I am indebted those who have helped me along my professional path. They have added value to my life, and I am profoundly grateful. Supporting the STFM Foundation is one way I can express that gratitude, and at the same time, ensure that others starting off as teachers of family medicine will find a welcoming home in the STFM family.

Faculty for Tomorrow Resident Scholarships: The STFM Foundation supports multiple scholarships to help cover travel expenses for residents like Josue to attend the Faculty for Tomorrow Preconference Workshop at the STFM Annual Spring Conference. With support from donors to the Underrepresented in Medicine Campaign, the STFM Foundation provides additional scholarships for underrepresented in medicine applicants.

How You Can Help: Transforming the future of family medicine would not be possible without the generosity of countless STFM members and supporters. Through both member and departmental donations, the STFM Foundation is able to support STFM's priority to develop the pipeline for academic family medicine.