Innovative, paired careers tutorials: increasing the number of medical students choosing general practice as a career

With a crisis in general practice recruitment, we need 50% of UK medical students to choose general practice as a career. Nottingham University does not achieve this. 2 paired careers tutorials, giving guided careers advice were embedded into a 4-week undergraduate attachment in primary care. They promoted portfolio GPs and how general practice could fit into career choices. Paired evaluation was completed (Open-ended questions on current career choices and a 5-point Likert scale "Is General Practice is a possible career choice for me?") The data was analysed using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. 100% response was achieved (218/218) with 80 (36.7%) giving a higher score in tutorial 2, suggesting they were more likely to choose general practice as a future career, 107 (49.1%) had no change in score and 31 (14.2%) provided a lower score. There was a significantly higher median score at the end of the attachment. Median (IQR) pre-survey score 3 (3-4) and median (IQR) post-survey score 4 (3-5). P = <0.0001. These results show that increasing medical student exposure to general practice with innovative, paired, careers tutorials may increase the number of students who would consider a career in general practice. Abbreviation section: GP: General Practitioner; CCT: Certificate of Completion of Training; UK: United Kingdom; GPwSI: General Practitioner with specialist interest; IQR: Interquartile range.