What does an Internist do?
Most Internists specialize in general internal medicine, the field devoted to caring for adults. Any person aged 18 or over can see an Internist, but their expertise is likely to benefit your patients who have chronic, complex or rare medical conditions that require ongoing care. Using knowledge gained through advanced training, Internists diagnose medical conditions and develop treatment plans to help patients manage them. Internists also take ownership of the primary care of your patients and provide wellness and preventive services, such as annual checkups and routine physical exams. Internists work in many settings, including physicians’ offices, clinics, hospitals and long-term care facilities.
Internist skills and qualifications
Successful candidates for Internist positions will exhibit skills and qualifications that indicate their ability to maintain a high standard of patient care, such as:
- Excellent written and oral communication skills to make complex medical concepts easy for patients to understand, clearly record patient information and give clear instructions to other team members such as nurses, physician assistants and medical assistants
- Well-honed active listening skills to hear and understand what patients communicate about their symptoms and knowledge of what probing questions to ask to gather more information
- Strong interpersonal skills to empathize with patients and alleviate any fear or stress associated with visiting a doctor or facing a medical condition
- Extensive scientific and medical knowledge to inform diagnoses
- Careful attentiveness to detail to ensure accuracy when prescribing medications, updating patient records and performing other tasks
- Sharp analytical skills to use all the available data to make diagnoses
- Critical thinking and problem-solving skills to overcome challenges that arise when treatment plans fail to yield desired results
- Time management and organizational skills to see the required number of patients per day and adhere to appointment scheduling
Internist experience requirements
To receive board certification as an Internist, doctors must complete a residency that usually lasts for 36 months. A successful candidate for your open position will have finished this residency. If your practice or facility already has many experienced physicians on staff, an Internist may not need more than their residency experience to succeed in the position. You may wish to focus on Internists who have worked as licensed, certified specialists for two or more years if you have a smaller practice or facility.
Internist education and training requirements
Internists begin their post-secondary education by earning a bachelor’s degree and then completing a four-year accredited medical school program. Following graduation, they participate in a residency and then receive a license to practice medicine from their state board of physician licensing. Prospective Internists must then pass a certification exam to gain their specialist credential from the American Board for Internal Medicine. You may wish to prioritize candidates who have also earned a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP) designation by passing a second examination and fulfilling research and peer recommendation requirements. Depending on your patients, certifications in a subspecialty such as geriatric medicine or hospice medicine may be advantageous.
Internist salary expectations
According to Indeed Salaries, the average salary for an Internist is $292,096 per year. The actual salary an Internist makes depends on their training, experience level, certification and geographic location.
Internist salary expectations
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Common salary:
225911.11 YEARLY -
Typical salaries range from
90000.00 -421000.00 YEARLY - Find more information on Indeed Salaries
*Indeed data –
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Internist job description FAQs
What does an Internist do on a daily basis?
At the beginning of the day, the Internist reviews their list of appointments and studies patient information to prepare for the day. Internists follow the schedule, seeing patients at the designated times. In between appointments, they update medical records, make phone calls to patients and discuss patient care with staff.
What qualities make a good Internist?
A good Internist demonstrates a true commitment to helping their patients lead healthy lives. They have a passion for medicine and are committed to keeping up with the latest research in their field. In addition, Internists also show a willingness to work long hours and handle patient emergencies that arise on their days off.
What is the role of an Internist compared to a general practitioner?
Internists and general practitioners can both serve as primary care physicians for your patients, but the two types of doctors treat different people. General practitioners or family doctors are trained to treat children and adolescents as well as adults, while Internists only see adults. If your facility accepts children and teens as patients, and you need a physician to assist with your entire appointment load, a general practitioner may be better suited to fill your open position. For long-term care facilities and clinics and practices that only treat adults, an Internist may be preferred because of their additional training that allows them to handle more complex cases.
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