‘… Medical schools should recognise they have a responsibility to patients to educate and prepare half of all graduates for careers in general practice … Teaching and promotion of general practice as a career which is as professionally and intellectually rewarding as any other specialism. Those medical schools which do not teach primary care as a subject should be held to account by the General Medical Council.’1
‘… It [general practice] is a really hard job. They GPs, have to be clinically, intellectually, and emotionally strong … to identify major clinical problems masquerading as minor ailments and it is utterly relentless. It requires a lot of intellectual flexibility and people have to be very tolerant individuals. It is one of the hardest jobs in medicine.’2
‘… Health Education England is currently working with the Medical Schools Council, higher education institutions, the RCGP and the GPC to increase the profile of general practice in medical schools and in their curricula . A working group, chaired by Professor Valerie Wass OBE, will publish recommendations in Summer 2016 about recruitment and selection, finance and curriculum and the promotion of general practice as a specialty.’3 (author’s italics)
Studying the discipline of general practice
These statements underline why medical students should study general practice as a specialty or specialism, that is as a distinct subject, and that this needs to be done intellectually, a word appearing three times in these extracts. ‘Intellectual’ is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as ‘possessing a high level of understanding …’ implying understanding of general practice research.
An intellectual approach is needed as current medical students have been highly selected on intellectual criteria. They want know the ‘hows and whys’ of medicine. If they hear theory and principles only from hospital specialists, they will be drawn only to hospital practice and 81% …
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