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New Physicians
Engage with opportunities to grow your leadership skills, ensure your best interests on your next contract, search for a new position and make meaningful connections through both chapter and national events.
New Physicians in their first seven years of practice enjoy discounts on many Academy event registration fees. Your first year of practice after residency, your dues is discounted by AAFP and IAFP.
Membership = Community Building: Opportunities to connect with other family physicians in Illinois and across the country at different events, conferences and online. Get started with an IAFP Member Interest Group
• Exclusive Resources: Tools tailored for new physicians, including financial planning, contract negotiation guides and work-life balance and other well-being strategies. See below for our resources and link to AAFP Member Advantage Discounts and Services
• Advocacy: The Academy delivers representation at local, state and national levels to ensure your voice is heard in policy-making for family medicine. We also provide the tools you need to deliver your messages directly to lawmakers. Our Spring into Action event every two years brings family medicine directly to the Statehouse. AAFP's Family Medicine Advocacy Network is your starting point for your Federal advocacy priorities.
• Professional Development: Access to CME opportunities, evidence-based clinical guidelines and tools to stay current in family medicine. Plus the state mandated CME you need your way delivered by your Illinois family medicine peers.
"The Illinois Academy truly shaped who I am in his family medicine physician. I got involved as a second year medical student and subsequently took on several state and national leadership roles in which I learned a lot about advocacy about health policy and about organized medicine. But most importantly, the IAFP connected me with family physicians from around the state, talking about different working in different practice settings, and ultimately it's how I found my job."
Our February 2025 Illinois Family Physician magazine “Cover Doc” Kristina Dakis, MD, FAAFP served as a board member and hosted a Summer Externship student the past three summers. She practices at Family Healthcare of Gibson City.
New Physician Feature Romero Santiago, MD, MPH, FAAFP, FACOEM More...
August 2024 - US Surgeon General's Advisory on the Mental Health and Well-being of Parents
Link to Surgeon General's landing page for Parental Health and Well-being.
2023 IAFP New Physicians and New Parents Update webinar Recording
2022 Webinar link to the recording:
CNBC Online article - 7 Ways New Mothers can prioritize their mental health
Facebook group Dr. Milk Physician-only group (med students, residents, fellows, and attendings) moderated by trained lactation consultant physicians to ask any type of question from what is the best pump, to how to pump on a 24-hour shift, how to store milk, how to troubleshoot feeding/bottle issues, etc.
06/14/2022 - AMA Adopts New Policies supporting parents in medical school and residency Supporting efforts to provide onsite or subsidized childcare for medical students and residents
Recognizing the lack of options available for affordable, accessible, quality childcare in the U.S. and the unique childcare challenges faced by physicians-in-training, the AMA adopted policy calling for onsite and/or subsidized childcare for medical students, residents, and fellows. Many health care workers, including medical students and residents, work outside the standard business hours, yet the number of childcare centers providing care during nonstandard hours is small—with only two percent offering childcare during the evening, six percent offering overnight care, and three percent offering weekend care. Given the fiscal challenges that medical schools and graduate medical education institutions may face in providing onsite and/or subsidized childcare, the AMA will also work with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, Association of American Medical Colleges, and American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine to identify barriers to providing onsite care, as well as innovative methods and best practices for implementing onsite or subsidized care that meets the unique needs of medical students, residents, and fellows.
Ensuring adequate parental leave for medical students
While the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires covered employers to provide up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave to bond with a newborn or newly adopted child, FMLA does not have protections for students and schools are not required by law to accommodate parental leave. To ensure adequate parental leave for medical students, the adopted new policy encouraging medical schools to incorporate a six-week minimum leave allowance into their parental leave policies. Under the new policy, the AMA will also work with key stakeholders to advocate that anyone involved in providing medical training, such as residency programs, administration, fellowships, away rotations, physician evaluators, and research opportunities, do not discriminate against students who take family or parental leave.
