Why do medical doctors choose general practice and remain there?

Since 2001, all Norwegian citizens are offered access to the list of a general practitioner (GP). This National Regular General Practitioner scheme now serves as the cornerstone of the Norwegian healthcare system. The public has repeatedly valued the enlisting system highly and scored it on the higher end of public services. In addition, research has demonstrated excellent job-satisfaction among Norwegian GP’s. However, working conditions have deteriorated and working hours soared in recent years, mainly due to political and structural changes including the Care Coordination reform of 2012. Recruitment to general practice is failing as a result. In spite of this, GPs on social media platforms, in articles and interviews appear very motivated, expressing strong professional identity.

The aim of this project is to describe motivational factors that are perceived as important when choosing general practice as a specialty, thereby exploring the importance of these motivational factors for how general practitioners experience their workdays.

Our empirical data consists of texts resulting from written responses to an open question on a closed facebook-group for GPs. Data will be analysed with systematic text condensation (STC) and supported by theories from occupational psychology on calling as job-motivation.

General practitioner Inga Marthe Grønseth is the primary researcher in this project. Kirsti Malterud and Stein Nilsen are Grønseths supervisors.

Updated: June 2019