General Internal Medicine Physicians
Diagnose and provide nonsurgical treatment for a wide range of diseases and injuries of internal organ systems. Provide care mainly for adults and adolescents, and are based primarily in an outpatient care setting.
Most important skills
- Reading Comprehension
- Active Listening
- Writing
- Speaking
- Science
- Critical Thinking
- Social Perceptiveness
- Complex Problem Solving
Key knowledge
- Medicine and Dentistry
- Biology
- Therapy and Counseling
- Psychology
- Education and Training
- English Language
- Administration and Management
- Customer and Personal Service
What the work involves
- Treat internal disorders, such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, or problems of the lung, brain, kidney, or gastrointestinal tract.
- Analyze records, reports, test results, or examination information to diagnose medical condition of patient.
- Prescribe or administer medication, therapy, and other specialized medical care to treat or prevent illness, disease, or injury.
- Provide and manage long-term, comprehensive medical care, including diagnosis and nonsurgical treatment of diseases, for adult patients in an office or hospital.
- Manage and treat common health problems, such as infections, influenza or pneumonia, as well as serious, chronic, and complex illnesses, in adolescents, adults, and the elderly.
- Monitor patients' conditions and progress and reevaluate treatments as necessary.
- Collect, record, and maintain patient information, such as medical history, reports, or examination results.
- Make diagnoses when different illnesses occur together or in situations where the diagnosis may be obscure.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Investigative, Social, Realistic.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- Post-Doctoral Training (53% of respondents)
- Related experience
- Over 4 years, up to and including 6 years (33.2%)
- On-the-job training
- Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month (36.3%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 5: Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for General Internal Medicine Physicians is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | High | Higher on contact with others than 68% of occupations compared | 86% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | High | Higher on dealing with the public than 76% of occupations compared | — |
| Teamwork | Low | Lower on teamwork than 73% of occupations compared | 48% of surveyed respondents chose “Very important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very high | Higher on freedom to make decisions than 96% of occupations compared | 84% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | High | Higher on time pressure than 68% of occupations compared | 45% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Conflict situations | Moderate | Lower on conflict situations than 55% of occupations compared | — |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | High | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 75% of occupations compared | 43% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Consequence of error | Very high | Higher on consequence of error than 94% of occupations compared | 58% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely serious” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: high
- Conflict situations: moderate
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: high
- Consequence of error: very high
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 13.27%
- Contact with others about half the time: 0%
- Contact with others most of the time: 0.76%
- Constant contact with others: 85.97%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2021
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 14.05%
- Important: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Very important: 23.79%
- Extremely important: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2021
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 13.27%
- Fairly important: 0.73%
- Important: 0%
- Very important: 48.32%
- Extremely important: 37.69%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2021
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 0%
- Limited freedom: 0.67%
- Some freedom: 15.13%
- A lot of freedom: 84.21%
n = 21, Incumbent 08/2021
Time pressure
- Never: 0.66%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 14.76%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 4.91%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 34.77%
- Every day: 44.9%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2021
Conflict situations
- Never: 14.66%
- Once a year or more but not every month: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Once a month or more but not every week: 4.51%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 30.06%
- Every day: 8.74%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2021
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 17.72%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 43.23%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 30.26%
- Every day: 8.79%
n = 21, Incumbent 08/2021
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 7.53%
- Fairly serious: 0.66%
- Serious: 1.31%
- Very serious: 32.85%
- Extremely serious: 57.65%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2021
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O*NET-SOC 29-1216.00 · SOC 29-1216 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8