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Addressing general practice workforce shortages: policy options
Author(s) -
Thistlethwaite Jill E,
Leeder Stephen R,
Kidd Michael R,
Shaw Tim
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2008.tb01936.x
Subject(s) - remuneration , flexibility (engineering) , general practice , economic shortage , workforce , popularity , quality (philosophy) , medical education , medicine , psychology , nursing , business , family medicine , management , government (linguistics) , economics , social psychology , economic growth , finance , linguistics , philosophy , epistemology
There is an ongoing shortage of general practitioners in Australia, accompanied by a decline in the popularity of general practice as a career choice. Many factors influence the career choice of junior doctors and medical students, including role models, the quality of clinical attachments during training, remuneration, and flexibility of training and working hours. Evidence‐based strategies that could increase the number of doctors choosing general practice as a career include longer and higher‐quality general practice attachments during medical school and the early postgraduate years, and emphasising the positive aspects of general practice, such as flexibility. General practice would become a more attractive choice if remuneration was in line with hospital specialties.