Huisartsgeneeskunde: aantrekkingskracht en beroepstrouw ... - Lirias
Huisartsgeneeskunde: aantrekkingskracht en beroepstrouw ... - Lirias
Huisartsgeneeskunde: aantrekkingskracht en beroepstrouw ... - Lirias
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
30 Making G<strong>en</strong>eral Practice Attractive: Encouraging GP attraction and Ret<strong>en</strong>tion KCE Reports 90<br />
3 CHAPTER 3: WHY DO STUDENTS CHOOSE<br />
TO STUDY GENERAL PRACTICE:<br />
QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE STUDY<br />
WITH 7 TH YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS ON<br />
MOTIVATIONS TO CHOOSE OR NOT THE<br />
GP PROFESSION<br />
3.1 OBJECTIVES<br />
The previous chapter id<strong>en</strong>tified the factors influ<strong>en</strong>cing GPs’ attraction, recruitm<strong>en</strong>t and<br />
ret<strong>en</strong>tion from the national and international literature. Are they relevant for the<br />
Belgian context? This chapter specifically focuses on the Belgian situation. Each country<br />
has indeed its own health care system, medical training tradition and labor market<br />
equilibrium and it is important to <strong>en</strong>sure that the Belgian situation is in accordance with<br />
the literature findings from the US, Australia and the UK.<br />
This chapter studies the influ<strong>en</strong>ce of the medical school, of the working conditions, of<br />
the level of income on the stud<strong>en</strong>ts' decision to choose (or not) g<strong>en</strong>eral practice as a<br />
career.<br />
3.2 LITERATURE<br />
The aim of this survey among stud<strong>en</strong>ts is to look at the interaction of factors related to<br />
medical stud<strong>en</strong>ts’ specialty choice in Belgium. A specific narrative literature review first<br />
focused on the choice of GP profession among stud<strong>en</strong>ts (see app<strong>en</strong>dix 3.1). It served as<br />
a guidance for the developm<strong>en</strong>t of the interview schedule at the beginning of the<br />
project, before the systematic literature review described in the second chapter.<br />
The factors related to the choice of the specialty family medicine/g<strong>en</strong>eral practice<br />
(factors related to GPs attraction) follow the chronological pathway of any specialty<br />
choice 22 .<br />
3.3 RESEARCH QUESTION<br />
• a first set of factors concern medical stud<strong>en</strong>ts’ characteristics wh<strong>en</strong><br />
<strong>en</strong>tering medical school (personal and professional id<strong>en</strong>tity). These<br />
include their personal characteristics (age, g<strong>en</strong>der, personality),<br />
background (socio-economic, rural living area, medical background of<br />
the family), their values and their int<strong>en</strong>tions (expectations on income,<br />
attitude towards and interest in primary care/g<strong>en</strong>eral practice);<br />
• the second set includes the medical school and experi<strong>en</strong>ces that occur<br />
during the process of medical education (classes and practice training =<br />
relays in primary care/g<strong>en</strong>eral practice): curriculum and mainly time<br />
allocated to family medicine/g<strong>en</strong>eral practice, role-models (mostly<br />
negative ones), peer <strong>en</strong>couragem<strong>en</strong>t and informal culture of the school<br />
(attitudes, comm<strong>en</strong>ts regarding primary care, strong hierarchical<br />
perceptions);<br />
• finally, a group of factors relates to the outcomes of the process of<br />
medical education including perceptions about specialties<br />
(characteristics and cont<strong>en</strong>t), career int<strong>en</strong>tions (expectations regarding<br />
the profession e.g. income, status, working conditions, relationship<br />
with pati<strong>en</strong>ts, interest in family medicine/g<strong>en</strong>eral practice) and the<br />
influ<strong>en</strong>ce of financial debt.<br />
The main research question is: “Which reasons do influ<strong>en</strong>ce the choice of g<strong>en</strong>eral<br />
practice among Belgian stud<strong>en</strong>ts?”