Scott Nass, MD, MPA is a PGY2 resident at Ventura County Medical Center.  Growing up in rural eastern Kentucky, his early exposure to family medicine began with sharing a single primary care physician with his parents, sister and grandmother.  That experience eventually guided him to his decision to pursue family medicine early in his medical career.  Dr. Nass earned his MD from David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and received his MPA, Public Affairs from Indiana University-Bloomington.  As a medical student, he received a scholarship from the CAFP Foundation to attend AAFP's National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students (NC) in 2008.  That conference draws more than 1,800 students and residents from around the country each year. As a medical student, Dr. Nass was part of a subgroup that was jointly enrolled at Charles Drew University-the Charles Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program, which primarily focuses its service to urban underserved communities. 

Throughout the past few years, Dr. Nass has given back to the Academy by sharing his enthusiasm for the specialty of family medicine in his 2009 Match Day article in California Family Physician magazine and supporting the advocacy efforts of the California Academy by giving to the Family Physicians Political Action Committee (FP-PAC).

Dr. Nass attended the annual AAFP National Conference of Special Constituencies (NCSC) May 5-7, at which representatives from CAFP honed their leadership skills and took advantage of networking opportunities to become champions for family medicine.  NCSC is the AAFP's premiere policy development meeting to address member issues specific to women, minorities, new physicians, international medical graduates and GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) family physicians. 

CAFP commends Dr. Nass for proactively seeking opportunities to champion family medicine and advocating for patients beyond the scope of the individual practice setting.

I am a member of AAFP and CAFP because I believe so strongly in our specialty.  Joining together in a unified body creates a professional presence that demonstrates the strength of Family Medicine.  Being an Academy member allows me to access resources, including other physicians, who enable me to be a better provider for my patients.

What do you love about practicing family medicine?  To me, every patient is a human puzzle to be solved, and treating individuals in the context of family provides such a wealth of information that I cannot imagine practicing in the isolation of a subspecialty.  Family medical history and social dynamic mesh, and quite often collide, behind exam room doors, and patients truly become more than just their chief complaint.  The root of my passion lies in treating the family rather than individuals, and doing so throughout the lifespan of family members.  No other specialty would provide me the skills to do this job, and do it well.

How do you champion family medicine? I champion Family Medicine in my personal and professional lives by striving to serve as a positive example for the specialty - to my patients, my peers, and the community.

Having graduated from the Charles Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program, advocating for the medically underserved has always been at the heart of my drive toward becoming a family physician.  I see in the Academy significant opportunity to continue to advocate on my patients' behalves, and was honored in May to accompany the CAFP delegation to the National Conference of Special Constituencies, at which I experienced true advocacy in action.

Your best advice for surviving residency?   My best advice for surviving residency is to smile, not just at your patients, but for them. When they feel your compassion and return that smile, it can brighten the darkest post-call day. 

Are there any projects currently underway in Ventura that you would like your resident and FP colleagues to know about?  The Ventura program expanded the size of our incoming residency class from 14 to 16 with the blessing of the County's administration.  It is empowering to see such validation of the work we do for Ventura County's underserved residents.  Outside of the hospital, many residents participate in the resident-run CAMPO (Community Advocacy/Mentorship Project and Outreach) interest group, which works to address many of the challenges facing some of Ventura County's most vulnerable populations, including the homeless and migrant farm workers.

How do you successfully balance family life with family medicine?  I am fortunate to have a partner who understands that my passion for Family Medicine, and my patients, defines in part who I am.  The extra, uncompensated hours I spend on the job make time together all the more valuable. 

What is the biggest opportunity or challenge you see in the family medicine specialty in the next five years?  As subspecialties continue to fragment the landscape of medicine, family physicians must strengthen their resolve to provide broad-spectrum care by refusing to give up procedural privileges or allow them to be undervalued by the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) and other advisory bodies.  With the number of residency programs that offer full-spectrum training dwindling, it is up to all providers to demonstrate their professional skills as broadly as possible.

To whom do you look  as a role model?  I see each of the faculty members at Ventura County Medical Center as champions of Family Medicine.  So many of them have taken the broad-spectrum training they received during residency and continued to demonstrate those skills as attending physicians, practicing as intensivists or hospitalists, or in obstetrics or emergency medicine - and quite often a combination of the above - while still providing amazing continuity of care for their clinic patients.

What website/blog are you currently reading?  I check the Physicians for a National Health Program website every day.  The organization routinely offers an evidence-based critique of healthcare reform efforts and the myriad positions surrounding it.

If you would like to become or nominate a future Member of the Month, please contact CAFP Membership Manager Sophia Henry at 415-345-8667.