Huisartsgeneeskunde: aantrekkingskracht en beroepstrouw ... - Lirias

54 Making General Practice Attractive: Encouraging GP attraction and Retention KCE Reports 90
The multivariate model w (appendix 3.8, table 6) confirms the negative relationship
between the perception the GP profession as a solitary one and becoming a GP (odds
ratio 0.429 [95% CI (0,225-0,818)]).
3.6.3.2 Variety and routine in the work of the GP
Five intermediate effect sizes are also noticed (≥ 0,3); ’GPs have the privilege of working
with patients in different stages of their life’, ‘GPs have a lot of variety in their work’,
‘There is a lot of routine work involved in being a GP‘, ‘GPs have a lot of possibilities to
study in sub domains’ and ‘GPs have lots of opportunities to do scientific research’. The
future GP students do more agree on all but one of those statements: the perception
about the routine work of a GP is more present among non-GP students. In the binary
logistic regression only the three latter statements seem to be significant for the chance
of becoming a GP. When students agree with the fact that there are future
opportunities for GPs to study in sub domains and do scientific research, the odds
ratios they really choose the GP profession rises up to respectively 2.578 [95% CI
(1,155-5,753)] and 3.793 [95% CI (1,987-7,240)]. The idea that GPs have a lot of career
opportunities is more present among students in the Dutch speaking part of the
country. When students have the opinion that there is a lot of routine work involved in
the GP profession, the chance is only about 19% (odds ratio 0.240 [95% CI (0,121-
0,476)]) that they opted for GP.
3.6.3.3 Stress, autonomy, availability
Other small associations were found concerning the perception of the working
conditions. In particular GPs are subject a great degree to the pressures and demands of
patients’ (effect size = 0,222), ‘The profession of GP allows you to work autonomously
and I think that is an advantage’ (effect size = 0,211), ‘GPs need to be permanently
available’ (effect size = 0,209) and ‘As long as it is well organized, the profession of GP
makes for a good combination with family life’ (effect size = 0,105). Future GPs
perceive a higher level of autonomy in the GP profession higher than students who
chose another specialty. GP students are also more positive about the combination of
work and family. In general, they do less agree about the fact that GPs need to be
constantly available for their patients. Maybe the latter is connected with the findings
that future GPs do not seem to experience the pressure and demand of patients in such
a great degree as the other seventh year students and they experience more respect
from patients (mean 4,2 and 4,5).
The multivariate model (appendix 3.8, table 6) confirms those findings. The odds ratio
of becoming a GP when agreed with ‘GPs get a lot of respect from patients’ is about
2.609 [95% CI (1,111-6,126)] and about 0.471 [95% CI (0,242-0,916)] when agreed with
‘GPs are subject a great degree to the pressures and demands of patients’.
3.6.3.4 Complexity of the work
Other small but statistically significant differences between students who choose to
become a specialist and those who choose to become a GP can be noticed in the
perception of the complexity of the work of a general practitioner (‘The profession of
GP is a difficult discipline because you have to know a lot about all different fields’ and
‘The profession of GP is difficult because you often have to deal with uncertainties’). On
the average GP students experienced the GP specialty as more difficult. But these items
had high scores in both groups.
3.6.3.5 Technology in the GP profession
The final difference to be mentioned is the perception about the use of technology in
GP practice. Future GPs value technology as more important in the GP discipline than
w Before putting the statements in a binary logistic regression the answering were dichotomised. E.g.
completely disagree, disagree and disagree a bit became ‘disagree’ and agree a bit, agree and completely
disagree became ‘agree’.