Students' motivation in choosing general practice for their career pathway: a middle-income country report, Indonesia

To understand the medical students' perspectives and influential factors on their career pathway decision to be a General Practitioners (GP) in Indonesia.

This research used sequentially mixed methods. The qualitative study was conducted using focus group discussions with 30 third-year students, followed by in-depth interviews with 15 students from one Indonesian institution with the highest level of accreditation. The qualitative data, together with the literature review, were used to construct an online questionnaire with three types of questions.

The survey response rate reached 81% from 2,240 students across 64 faculties of medicine in Indonesia. Responses indicated that GP is not preferred as the leading career choice, and 67% of students prefer to become hospital specialists. The qualitative data revealed several influencing factors in choosing GP as their ultimate career choice: more family time, being closer to the community, and interest in bio-psycho-social subjects. Meanwhile, the reasons not to choose GP as a career choice were: imbalance in work and life, less authority, being at the lowest level position in the health care system, high uncertainty, and low financial incentives.

GP is not an interesting career option for most medical students in this study. Considering GP works strategically in primary care settings aiming at better health outcomes and optimizing the health care financial system with greater patient satisfaction, influential positive factors to be GP should be nurtured in the medical curriculum.