@article {Carlinbjgpopen20X101132, author = {Emmet Carlin and Hugh Alberti and Kristen Davies}, title = {Denigration of GP as a career choice: The students{\textquoteright} perspective}, elocation-id = {bjgpopen20X101132}, year = {2020}, doi = {10.3399/bjgpopen20X101132}, publisher = {Royal College of General Practitioners}, abstract = {Background: General practice in the UK and other parts of the world is facing a recruitment crisis with insufficient numbers of medical students selecting it as a career choice. Denigration of general practice has been postulated as one of the contributing factors. Aim: Our aim was to explore comments about GP as a career made by clinical teachers from the medical student{\textquoteright}s perspective in order to further our understanding of the current difficulties of recruiting into general practice. Design and setting: This was a qualitative, explorative study of three focus groups of medical students from two medical schools in northern England. Method: A semi structured interview format was utilised. Results were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Students reported hearing both positive and negative comments about GP as a career choice; they perceive the comments to potentially influence student career choice. Three underlying themes emerged: the individual (personal characteristics of students affecting the influence that comments have on them), the curriculum (presence and content of general practice teaching) and culture (in the medical school and profession). These were used to postulate a model which may explain how negative comments shape a students{\textquoteright} perception of GP. Conclusion: Denigration of GP is an ongoing problem within the medical profession and strategies to address it must be developed or recruitment to the specialty will continue to decline. This study suggests a model which can help to understand the complex relationship between factors which result in negative comments being taken on board by medical students.}, URL = {https://bjgpopen.org/content/early/2020/11/12/bjgpopen20X101132}, eprint = {https://bjgpopen.org/content/early/2020/11/12/bjgpopen20X101132.full.pdf}, journal = {BJGP Open} }