Authors (including presenting author) :
Edwin YH Chan1,,Jun Liang1
Affiliation :
1Department of Family Medicine & Primacy Health Care, Community Care Division, New Territories West Cluster, Hospital Authority
Introduction :
There are challenges attracting enough young doctors to train in family medicine. This pilot qualitative study was for interns the reason for them to choose family medicine (FM) as their career. It was carried in the New Territories West cluster (NTWC) of the Hospital Authority of Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, previous study by Wu et al 2012 using an anonymous self-administered cross-sectional survey amongst the 2012 cohort of final year medical students showed that 10% of students responded that they would choose FM as their first career choice but 30%f of them finally did not select FM.
Objectives :
The aim of the study was to explore the reasons and barriers for interns to choose FM as their career. This will inform future strategic and manpower planning.
Methodology :
This was an exploratory study based on a qualitative triangulation approach using written questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. The research was carried out in two stages during the 2016 NTWC intern recruitment period. The participants were the interns who graduated in 2015. Stage 1 December 2015-Mar 2016 The objective of this stage was to explore the way potential FM interns' choices changed over time by a short written questionnaire Stage 2 July 2016 to March 2017 Interns who eventually accepted the offer of FM trainee positions in July 2016 were interviewed. In-depth semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted
Result & Outcome :
For stage 1, forty-one interns participated who attended NTWC intern career information talk. Thirty-one out of the forty-one interns had considered FM as their future career. The main reasons were related to the work nature of this specialty e.g. providing holistic and comprehensive management, work-life balance, personal experience, training curriculium, attachment program and sharing with FM specialists. For stage 2, 8 interns who finally chose family medicine as their career in NTWC were interviewed. Enabler themes included personal factors, the departmental factors, the perception of family medicine. On the other hand, barrier themes included negative perceptions, lack of intellectual stimulation and inferiority of family medicine compared with other specialties In conclusion, working environment, holistic and comprehensive service of FM has attractive factors for interns. Detailed information on FM career pathways, training programs and the future developments may be provided through intern attachment programs and internship rotations to address some of the negative perceptions
