Carlin Emmet, Alberti Hugh, Davies Kristen
Newcastle University, School of Medical Education, Newcastle, UK
Newcastle University, School of Medical Education, Newcastle, UK.
BJGP Open. 2021 Feb 23;5(1). doi: 10.3399/bjgpopen20X101132. Print 2021 Jan.
General practice in the UK and other parts of the world is facing a recruitment crisis with insufficient numbers of medical students selecting it as a career choice. Denigration of general practice has been postulated as one of the contributing factors.
To explore comments about general practice as a career made by clinical teachers from the medical student's perspective, and in doing so to further understand the current difficulties of recruiting into general practice.
DESIGN & SETTING: A qualitative, explorative study of three focus groups of medical students from two medical schools in northern England.
A semi-structured interview format was utilised. The following four questions were posed to the participants about choosing general practice as a career: had they heard negative comments? Had they heard positive comments? Do they think comments influence student career decisions or is it a problem? Could they suggest any solutions to the issue? Results were analysed using thematic analysis.
Students reported hearing both positive and negative comments about general practice as a career choice. They perceived the comments to potentially influence student career choice. Three underlying themes emerged: the individual (personal characteristics of students affecting the influence that comments have on them); the curriculum (presence and content of general practice teaching); and culture (in the medical school and profession). These were used to postulate a model that may explain how negative comments shape students' perceptions of general practice.
Denigration of general practice is an ongoing problem within the medical profession and strategies to address it must be developed or recruitment to the specialty will continue to decline. This study suggests a model that can help to understand the complex relationship between different factors that result in negative comments being taken on board by medical students.
英国及世界其他地区的全科医疗面临招聘危机,选择从事该职业的医学生数量不足。全科医疗受到诋毁被认为是其中一个促成因素。
从医学生的角度探讨临床教师对全科医疗作为一种职业的看法,从而进一步了解目前全科医疗招聘方面的困难。
对英格兰北部两所医学院的三组医学生进行定性探索性研究。
采用半结构化访谈形式。就选择全科医疗作为职业向参与者提出以下四个问题:他们是否听过负面评价?是否听过正面评价?他们认为这些评价会影响学生的职业决策吗,还是这是个问题?他们能就这个问题提出任何解决方案吗?结果采用主题分析法进行分析。
学生们表示听到过关于将全科医疗作为职业选择的正面和负面评价。他们认为这些评价可能会影响学生的职业选择。出现了三个潜在主题:个人(学生的个人特征影响评价对他们的影响程度);课程(全科医疗教学的存在及内容);以及文化(医学院校和行业内的文化)。这些被用来构建一个模型,该模型可能解释负面评价如何塑造学生对全科医疗的看法。
诋毁全科医疗是医学行业内一个持续存在的问题,必须制定应对策略,否则该专业领域新入职人员数量将持续下降。本研究提出了一个模型,有助于理解导致医学生接受负面评价的不同因素之间的复杂关系。