Encouraging medical students to pursue general practice

The UK Foundation Programme Office F2 career destination report suggests some of the more ‘academic’ medical schools have lower proportions of GP core trainees.¹ Why? Is being a GP seen as less academically worthy? Or are these medical schools inadvertently discouraging general practice as a career?

From the start I have wanted to be a GP. However, this longstanding belief has been challenged on every clinical placement so far. Why? Why do hospital practitioners consider it their duty to dissuade you from general practice and persuade you towards hospital medicine?

In my experience a disproportionate amount of clinical placements take place in secondary and tertiary care; this lack of long-term exposure could be detrimental towards general practice. My aspiration has not changed but many fellow students see becoming a GP as a second-choice option; medical schools need to do more to make general practice seem exciting, attractive, and vital.²

As suggested, increased exposure to inspiring, enthusiastic GPs would open many students’ eyes to the hugely varied and rewarding career of a GP. There has been minimal contact with academic GPs apart from via the voluntary GP society. Allowing GPs to have larger (and more public) roles within the curriculum early in pre-clinical and clinical training could help make the career an active choice, not a fallback option. However, I do not believe a simple increase in the quantity of GP undergraduate training will help. Quality is key. The GPs delivering this training need to be positive role models for this to work; if they are demoralised or overworked it could backfire and further exacerbate the recruitment problem.

Alarmingly, I have been told by a number of GP tutors NOT to become a GP. This strong advice has been brokered with warnings of a poorer work–life balance than advised, poor job satisfaction, and an endless river of paperwork diverting attention from patients. Is it any wonder that there is a struggle to recruit medical students to GP training?