Background and purpose: Due to the increasing lack of physicians, an ageing and thus multi-morbid society and a misdistribution of physicians in Germany primary care provided by general practitioners is at risk. Therefore, approaches to recruit more physicians for general practice are being sought. The aim of the present study was to explore individual motivations for choosing a career in general practice, vocational trainees' perspectives on the current situation of vocational training and to identify possible approaches to improve the situation with suggestions from vocational trainees in Germany.
Methods: A qualitative study was conducted by interviewing 13 trainees. The interviews that were based on a predefined interview guideline were recorded and transcribed. The analysis was performed according to Mayring supported by the software Atlas.ti.
Results: In general, the reasons given for choosing general practice include the holistic view towards patients, the opportunity to see the direct impact of therapies and self-employment. Furthermore, general practice was perceived as a job with a positive work-life balance. Barriers to vocational training are the lack of structure of individual rotations and the low salaries during the rotation in practice. Furthermore, the basic conditions for working as a self-employed general practitioner in Germany were described as being a disincentive. A general suggestion for improvement was to promote professional recognition of general practice at universities. A qualification of vocational trainers was requested. Specific suggestions were: better payment, better-structured rotations and a specific preparation for the self-employed general practitioner.
Conclusion: The results of this study reveal that a single measure is insufficient for recruiting more young doctors for general practice. In fact, a package of measures is necessary to improve aspects of the vocational training but also general conditions for the profession.
Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier GmbH.