Snapshots and snippets: General practitioners’ reflections on professional space

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a mixed methods study of British general practitioners’ (GPs) reflections on professional space in terms of practice and self-identity. Inter-textual content analysis of 12 biographic and photographic datasets revealed four themes: workspace, re-appropriated space, life space and sacred space. GPs are ambivalent about their working environments, spending time and energy creating ‘best fit’ spaces, until lack of function becomes an habituated part of daily routine. Whilst some appear helpless in the face of change, others are making their presence felt through embodied, personalized or authorial spaces.