[Recruitment for general practice - relationship between practice-based curriculum and career choice]

Demographic change and recruitment problems in general practice are increasingly threatening an adequate primary care workforce in many countries. Medical schools play an important role in attracting young physicians to this field. The influence of the general practice curriculum on the career choice of graduates has not yet been sufficiently investigated.

The present study combines continuously collected data of medical students concerning the participation in miscellaneous general practice courses with data of a later graduate survey.

Response rate was 64.2%. Although only 4.7% of the participants preferred a career in general practice at study entry, this specialty was, at 12.3%, the second most frequent career choice. Among the future general practitioners, only 18.5% had initially planned this career. The future general practitioners took part significantly more frequently in all facultative general practice courses. They reported more frequently to have met role models in general practice and to have gained experience in rural areas. Future general practitioners would more often prefer to work in rural areas in the future.

Overall, the present results indicate that a broad and practice-oriented general practice curriculum has the potential to attract medical students to the specialty.