Make general practice more attractive to young doctors

General practice needs to become a more attractive career choice for young doctors if Australia is to meet the growing nation-wide demand for GPs, according to a systematic review Attracting health professionals into primary health care: strategies for recruitment, that examined options for attracting doctors into the specialty.

While general practice is one of the specialties hardest hit by the national doctor shortage, GPs will be in greater demand as the burden of chronic disease and emphasis on community preventative medicine grows.

Research led by Associate Professor Jill Thistlethwaite, funded by the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, based at the Australian National University showed medical students and doctors are influenced by a number of factors when making a career choice, including work/life balance, experiences during training and at medical school, and their personality.

But she says making general practice flexible in training and working hours would be a big draw card for the new generation of doctors.

“In the past, solo GPs and older doctors have been willing to work long hours and set up a business, but these days young doctors want more opportunity to spend time with their families,” Professor Thistlethwaite said.

Incentives are needed to retain women in the workforce like funding maternity leave or developing salaried general practice positions which give job security and regular remuneration, rather than leaving GPs reliant on Medicare items for payment, her research suggests.

“There should be a priority put on developing more pre-vocational general practice placements for junior doctors, so they can experience what general practice offers,” she said.