The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' views of a career in general practice

Background General Practice (GP) is an essential part of healthcare systems in the UK and internationally but continues to struggle with recruitment. Despite these concerns about GP recruitment, few studies have explored factors that influence medical students’ career choices around primary care.

Aim We aimed to re-visit factors previously proposed following new ways of working adopted since the COVID-19 pandemic, including the impact of these changes on learning experiences in primary care.

Design & setting A qualitative study using focus groups across three English medical schools.

Method Eight focus groups involving thirty-three final and penultimate year medical students. Qualitative data analysed using a framework approach. Transcripts coded independently by two researchers from a different institution before themes identified.

Results Six themes were identified: students’ prior career aspirations, their experience of the medical school curriculum, conceptualisation of general practice, future career predictions, views on the school’s curriculum philosophy and the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The curriculum philosophy of each school appeared was important in this journey and changes since the COVID-19 had an impact on all themes.

Conclusion Our study has confirmed previous findings that clinical experiences, the perceived narrative of the school, work-life balance and working environment remain important to students in making career plans. However, in addition, we have found the changing landscape in general practice since the covid pandemic, including remote consulting, workload, continuity of care and team-working are additional factors that concern students.