Give us a reason to be a GP

Sarah-Jane Lang; Devon Kennard

doi:10.3399/bjgp15X687757

It’s the big elephant in the room. As doctors in training the often ambivalent to downright contemptuous responses from some hospital specialists and colleagues when one expresses an interest in general practice does little to inspire confidence that it is a good career move. Surely this attitude has got to be challenged? Due to negative media portrayals and a lack of understanding of what general practice involves and contributes to patient care, juniors in foundation training and medical students are often left with a list of reasons not to be a GP.

Although changes are required, they will not happen overnight and certainly not in time for the next recruitment cycle, but is it not time to start confidently highlighting the many positive aspects of being a GP so they are made more widely known?

For instance, as raised by Lyon-Maris et al’s informants, portfolio roles have the potential to make being a GP very attractive.¹ There are countless examples of GPs pursuing such portfolio careers.²,³ Unfortunately, not many colleagues know what a portfolio GP is. They aren’t aware GPs can combine routine clinical work with doing just about anything, be it specialising in a specific clinical area to non-clinical work such as academic research or expedition medicine, to working in the media, to management roles, to working as a medical reservist within the armed forces. The list is limitless with the flexibility and control of being able to develop your career to suit your interests and needs as they change over time. Many medical students and foundation doctors have already developed interests in these areas, and by showing them that being a GP will allow them to combine this into a regular part of their working week could result in an improvement in application rates. Furthermore, GPs with such additional roles can translate these skills to innovate and improve primary care, as well as making them more resilient against the pressures of clinical work.

So how about we start promoting the endless possibilities of a career in general practice, especially to those who are yet to choose their specialty?

REFERENCES

1.↵
1. Lyon-Maris J,
2. Edwards L,
3. Scallan S,
4. Locke R
(2015) GP workload: time for a rethink of the generalist model of care to promote retention. Br J Gen Pract doi:10.3399/bjgp15X687145.
OpenUrl FREE Full Text
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1. Lundy CT
(2006) The changing face of General Practice in Northern Ireland — portfolio GP’s. Ulster Med J 75(3):231.
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3.↵
(Oct 31, 2014) Pulse, What are my options for a portfolio career? www.pulsetoday.co.uk/your-practice/practice-topics/employment/what-are-my-options-for-a-portfolio-career/20008331.fullarticle (accessed 4 Nov 2015).