title: Reasons why doctors choose or reject careers in general practice: national surveys.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Less than one-third of newly qualified doctors in the UK want a career in general practice. The English Department of Health expects that half of all newly qualified doctors will become GPs.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To report on the reasons why doctors choose or  reject careers in general practice, comparing intending GPs with doctors who chose hospital careers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Questionnaire surveys in all UK medical graduates in selected qualification years.
  
  
  METHODS
  Questions about specialty career intentions  and motivations, put to the qualifiers of 1993, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008, and 2009, 1 year after qualification, and at longer time intervals thereafter.
  
  
  RESULTS
  'Enthusiasm for and commitment to the specialty' was a very important determinant of choice  for intending doctors, regardless of chosen specialty. 'Hours and working conditions' were a strong influence for intending GPs (cited as having had 'a great deal' of influence by 75% of intending GPs in the first year after qualification), much more so than for doctors  who wanted a hospital career (cited by 30%). Relatively few doctors had actually considered general practice seriously but then rejected it; 78% of the doctors who rejected general practice gave 'job content' as their reason, compared with 32% of doctors who rejected other specialties.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The shortfall of doctors wanting a career in general practice is not accounted for by doctors considering and rejecting it. Many do not consider it at all. There are very distinctive factors that influence choice for, and rejection of, general practice.
authors.affiliation: UK Medical Careers Research Group, Department of Public Health, University of Oxford, Oxford. trevor.lambert@dph.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Trevor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.forename: Raph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goldacre
authors.forename: Fay
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Goldacre
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002321:Career Choice; D005260:Female; D058006:General Practice; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D006113:United Kingdom