Raising the profile of academic general practice to our medical students

Abstract

OF GENERAL PRACTICE General practice is struggling to recruit and retain high-quality trainees. There is a national target to increase recruitment to general practice in order to create 5000 extra GPs by 2020. 1 However, the attractiveness of the specialty has fallen relative to hospital practice. 2 Currently only 15.3% of doctors completing foundation training are appointed to GP training programmes. 3 Reasons for this are multifactorial but one postulated influence is students' misperception that general practice is not a prestigious or academically challenging career choice. 4 National studies support this concept: the recent 'Destination GP' survey jointly led by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and the Medical Schools Council (MSC) found that only 3% of medical students associated general practice with being intellectually challenging. 5 It has been acknowledged that correcting this misperception and raising the profile of academic general practice among medical students is vital in order to attract high-quality doctors and potential future educationalists and researchers into general practice, and we offer some consensusbased and evidence-based suggestions. The Wass report By Choice-Not by Chance was commissioned by Health Education England to support medical students towards careers in general practice. 6 The report found that students perceive that the specialty fails to offer the variety of academic challenge that they aspire to. The report made suggestions to support institutions with raising the profile of academic general practice. These included making academic training opportunities in primary care more accessible, ensuring that all students have access to scholarly activity and supervision by primary care leads, and raising the profile of senior academic GP leaders.

Intellectual stimulation in family medicine: an international qualitative study of student perceptions

“…Students in both countries were curious to learn more about family medicine research, supporting recent initiatives. 17 Strategies to achieve this could include ensuring family medicine research is referenced within course material, 31 and giving opportunities for students to interact with family medicine researchers through lectures, research electives, mentorship, or development of specific family medicine research modules. An important caveat from the study is that overpromotion of academic family medicine could, however, be a deterrent to a career in family medicine.…”

“… 9 , 16 This includes making academic training opportunities in family medicine more accessible, ensuring all students have access to scholarly activity and supervision by family physicians, and raising the profile of senior academic family medicine leaders. 17 The promotion of academic practice in family medicine mirrors efforts by specialty disciplines to attract students, particularly in response to concerns about recruitment. 18 – 20 To date, suggestions to increase academic exposure in family medicine emanate primarily from academic family physicians.…”

Career intentions and perceptions of general practice on entry to medical school: baseline findings of a longitudinal survey at three UK universities

“…Our results suggest that this may be explained in part by the increased importance Cambridge students place on having a career with research/academic opportunities, combined with the widely held perception among medical students that general practice offers little in this regard. This adds weight to current calls to raise the profile of academic general practice among certain groups of medical students 19,20 .…”

Focus on medical education research in primary care: an undergraduate medical education faculty’s journey

“…Exploring funding avenues is crucial to sustain the workforce; and other opportunities may be available at institutions or through external bodies, such as NIHR. Developing opportunities for students, such as scholarships, student selected components and intercalating opportunities, to taste primary care medical education is vital; this raises the profile of academic general practice to medical students, gives them the opportunity to undertake small projects which may generate posters and publications, and may inspire future GP medical education researchers (Lamb and Alberti, 2019). Focussing on medical education research in primary care can only benefit our institutions, our local GP workforce, our NHS and ultimately our patients.…”