'Don't work more than 3 days straight': Working conditions as learning conditions in general practice

To examine how GPs understand their working conditions and to consider what significance this holds for medical education.

Data were collected through online interviews with GPs, conducted between April and July 2023. These data were then subjected to thematic analysis.

Fifteen GPs were interviewed, including two practice partners, seven salaried GPs, one locum GP and five GPs in training. Participants were recruited through professional networks using purposive sampling.

GPs described intense pressure from increasing demand, large administrative burden and erosion of professional autonomy. Practitioners viewed working full-time as unsustainable, with experienced GPs actively discouraging trainees from taking on such work. The primary coping mechanism that GPs used was reducing their working days, which they considered necessary to continue in practice. The working conditions shape what is understood and transmitted about the profession: that general practice is a fundamentally unsustainable full-time career.

GPs understand their working conditions as untenable and that they must be managed at a personal level. However, these conditions are products of specific political and economic arrangements rather than natural features of medical practice. Medical educators should actively consider what the workplace is teaching and what effects this might have on the future workforce.