Are "part-time" general practitioners workforce idlers or committed professionals?

Area of Science:

• General Practice
• Health Workforce Studies
• Primary Care Research

Background:

• Traditional views emphasize full-time clinical practice for quality general practice.
• An increasing number of general practitioners (GPs) are opting for sessional work, often perceived as "part-time".

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the activities of GPs outside of patient consultations.
• To understand the motivations behind GPs choosing sessional work.
• To assess whether sessional general practice indicates a lack of commitment to patients and the profession.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with sessional GPs.
• Definition of a sessional GP as working six or fewer sessions per week (a session is four hours of patient care).

Main Results:

• Most sessional GPs are in full-time employment outside of their clinical practice.
• GPs report increasing complexity in consultations, including chronic and psychological conditions, and patient expectations.
• Diversification of work activities is a strategy to maintain professional standards and quality care.

Conclusions:

• Sessional general practice accurately reflects the work of these GPs, challenging the "part-time" misnomer.
• Sessional work is a professional adaptation to demanding consultations, enabling quality care.
• Sessional GPs demonstrate a strong commitment to patient care and the medical profession.