Meet Robert Wergin, MD!

Dr. Robert L. Wergin of Milford, NE, announces his candidacy for the 2008 AAFP Board of Directors. As chair of the Commission on Membership Programs and Activities, Dr. Wergin has played a vital role in the Nebraska Chapter. On a national level, Dr. Wergin serves on the AAFP Commission on Membership and Member Services.

Dr. Wergin has served on many committees, is a Past President and former Nebraska Family Physician of the Year. His work includes securing funding for student/resident memberships and providing Nebraska medical students with a positive family medicine role model. Each year he speaks to our state's medical schools at FMIG meetings. His enthusiasm for family medicine is apparent in his humorous and straightforward approach with the students.

I feel like the preacher preaching to the choir asking such a question, in that, I already know the answer. It's Family Medicine. There are many challenges to practicing Medicine in our current environment and sometimes it's easy to become frustrated or discouraged with all the regulations and problems we face on a daily basis. In the end, though, the practice of Family Medicine comes down to one issue, which is you and your patient in a room trying to sort out a medical problem and providing the best possible plan to remedy that. That, above all else, is what keeps us coming to our office and to work every day. Focusing on the other challenges is what is sometimes the discouraging part of our current situation. Declining Medical Student interest, paper work, Medicare and insurer reimbursement, the uninsured and underinsured, medical liabilities, medical bureaucracy and the burden of paper work are all the challenges we face. Even though there are these challenges and frustrations, there is also an element of opportunity.

As family physicians, we are in a position to remedy many of the challenges that face our patients across this great nation. In rural America, we already provide for the non-insured and underinsured individuals. We currently provide a basket of services and a medical home for our patients. The larger issues on a national scale are still solvable and, as family physicians, we'll play a large part in that solution. We as professionals and, particularly, as family physicians, are blessed with the full scope of the challenges of life. We are the first individuals to touch our patients as they come into this world as we deliver a baby and are often the last person to touch a person as they leave this earth as well. What an honor and responsibility that few in our society have. I go back to my original premise, in that, that is what being a physician is all about. That is what will be at the core of solving the medical care crisis in our nation. As a family physician, I feel a joy and honor at being a part of that life cycle process.

I now ask for your support in announcing my candidacy for the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians in the election process of 2008 in San Diego. As your Board of Directors Representative, I will use all my energy and enthusiasm to facilitate what we already do well, which is caring for our patients. I will use that same energy and determination to correct those frustrating parts of the practice of Medicine and refocus on delivering high quality medical care to all the citizens of our great nation. With your support, it's my belief we can overcome these challenges. Again, I think it all comes down to just that one thing. You and your patient working together towards a healthy life.