Abstract
BackgroundSingapore needs more family doctors to care for its ageing population and their chronic conditions. While there is a shifting of care from acute care settings to more community care, this has not been reflected in the primary care training in local medical schools. Furthermore, no research has explored how different aspects of the medical school curricula in Singapore influence students’ perceptions of careers in General Practice and Family Medicine- a gap that is filled by this study.MethodsSix focus groups involving 54 students from all three medical schools in Singapore were conducted. Discussions focused on their primary care experience, their professional and career aspirations, and perceptions towards the opportunities and challenges of primary care careers. Qualitative content analysis was used to interpret the data.ResultsThe respondents shared eight key concerns of pursuing primary care careers including limited professional opportunities, emphasis on lifestyle benefits rather than professional characteristics, need for business acumen, conflicts created by business in clinical care, mundane case mix, lack of continuity of care, limited consultation time, and specialists’ negative attitudes towards family doctors. The positive views articulated included the opportunities for entrepreneurialism and a portfolio career, breadth of clinical problems presented, and an improved future for primary care.ConclusionsImproving students’ perceptions of careers in primary care in Singapore would benefit from a concerted effort from multiple stakeholders; medical schools, healthcare providers, professional and regulatory bodies, and government.
Highlights
Singapore needs more family doctors to care for its ageing population and their chronic conditions
The respondents shared eight key concerns and three positive views of pursuing primary care careers based on their medical school experience
Concerns arising from formal curriculum Limited professional opportunities The students expressed concerns about the perceived limited professional opportunities offered by careers in primary care, as captured in the following excerpts: The amount of funding and emphasis on research and innovation for Family Medicine (FM) is not as much as the other specialty
Summary
Singapore needs more family doctors to care for its ageing population and their chronic conditions. While there is a shifting of care from acute care settings to more community care, this has not been reflected in the primary care training in local medical schools. With its rapidly ageing population, needs more general practitioners and family physicians (family doctors) to care for the elderly and their multi-morbidity [3].1. Despite the shift in focus from hospitals towards community care and preventive care, this refocusing of care has not been reflected fully in the delivery of training in local medical schools, and students from all three medical schools in Singapore have limited exposure to primary care settings in their training (Table 1)
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