What influences young doctors in their decision-making about general practice as a possible career? A qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Background: Recruitment to General Practitioner (GP) training programmes in the United Kingdom is poor. Colleagues’ negative comments about general practice could contribute to this.

Aim: To investigate what influences Foundation Year 2 (FY2) doctors in their decisions to choose general practice as a career, and how colleagues’ comments about GPs might affect those decisions.

Design and Setting: A qualitative study in Southwest England.

Method: Thematic analysis of interviews with FY2 doctors.

Results: Twenty-four doctors participated. They thought that GPs worked hard and had very varied clinical work. The effect on their career choice depended on their personalities. GP placement experiences significantly influenced their career intentions. The loneliness of working in general practice was a key concern. FY2 doctors thought colleagues’ criticisms of GPs did not reflect reality and were outdated. ‘Banter’ had little effect on career choices.

Conclusion: Person-specialty fit and FY2 doctors’ experiences of GP work have a significant effect on career choices. Loneliness in their GP work placements is a particular problem that should be addressed. While colleagues’ derogatory comments about GPs may affect medical students’ views on their career choices, they appear to have little effect on the career decision-making of qualified doctors.

Abbreviations: CMT: Core Medical Training; FY2: Foundation Year 2; GP: general practitioner; NHS: National Health Service; UK: United Kingdom

KEYWORDS:

• General practice
• career choice
• job satisfaction
• graduate medical education
• personality
• loneliness

Author contributions

DW, EW and MH contributed to the design of the study, data analysis and writing the manuscript.

DW and EW conducted the data collection. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Foundation doctors that were interviewed, and the Severn Foundation School team who generously agreed to forward our invitation email to their doctors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data sharing

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request, but to avoid the risk that individuals could be identified by their colleagues, they are not publicly available.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was granted by the Research Ethics Approval Committee for Health, (REACH), Department for Health University of Bath. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to interview.

Additional information

Funding

This study was partly own-account research, and partly funded by Bath Spa University.