When and why do medical students drop out of extracurricular longitudinal general practice tracks? A cross-sectional study from two German medical faculties
Objectives To explore when and why undergraduate medical students drop out of longitudinal extracurricular general practice (GP) tracks and to describe their future career plans.Design Cross-sectional online survey and descriptive analysis of routine data.Setting GP tracks at two German medical facu...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2022-12-01
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| Series: | BMJ Open |
| Online Access: | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/12/e064481.full |
| _version_ | 1797980833395507200 |
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| author | Thomas Frese Anne-Kathrin Geier Melanie Nafziger Tobias Deutsch Felix Johannes Bauch |
| author_facet | Thomas Frese Anne-Kathrin Geier Melanie Nafziger Tobias Deutsch Felix Johannes Bauch |
| author_sort | Thomas Frese |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objectives To explore when and why undergraduate medical students drop out of longitudinal extracurricular general practice (GP) tracks and to describe their future career plans.Design Cross-sectional online survey and descriptive analysis of routine data.Setting GP tracks at two German medical faculties, data collection took place between September 2020 and April 2021.Participants Of 111 students who had taken part in one of the two GP tracks and dropped out prematurely, 101 were contactable via email. Overall, the response rate was 72.3% with 73 completed questionnaires and 75.3% of the participants were female.Primary and secondary outcome measures Reasons for leaving the GP track (closed and free-text answers), attitudes towards a career in GP and future career plans.Results Students left the tracks predominantly during the first 2 years of study. Students most frequently stated that structural reasons such as the distance to the GP teaching practice (74.2%), interest in another medical discipline (66.1%), private reasons (58.1%) and the GP mentor (53.1%) influenced their decision to drop out. However, 87.1% of the students indicated that their exit could not have been prevented by the project administration.Conclusions Reasons for dropping out differ between GP tracks and not all reasons are within reach of programme design and staff. Addressable issues include student selection with regard to career plans, support and strengthening of student–mentor relationships, the location of GP practices, and/or travel and accommodation support. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T06:00:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ad53d99af60b40c7937302514194b46a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2044-6055 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T06:00:06Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-ad53d99af60b40c7937302514194b46a2022-12-22T04:41:44ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552022-12-01121210.1136/bmjopen-2022-064481When and why do medical students drop out of extracurricular longitudinal general practice tracks? A cross-sectional study from two German medical facultiesThomas Frese0Anne-Kathrin Geier1Melanie Nafziger2Tobias Deutsch3Felix Johannes Bauch4Faculty of Medicine, Institute of General Practice and Family Medicine, Center of Health Sciences, Martin Luther University of Halle Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany1 Department of General Practice, University of Leipzig, Faculty of Medicine, Leipzig, GermanyInstitute of General Practice and Family Medicine, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Faculty of Medicine, Halle/Saale, Saxony-Anhalt, GermanyDepartment of General Practice, Faculty of Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, GermanyInstitute of General Practice and Family Medicine, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, GermanyObjectives To explore when and why undergraduate medical students drop out of longitudinal extracurricular general practice (GP) tracks and to describe their future career plans.Design Cross-sectional online survey and descriptive analysis of routine data.Setting GP tracks at two German medical faculties, data collection took place between September 2020 and April 2021.Participants Of 111 students who had taken part in one of the two GP tracks and dropped out prematurely, 101 were contactable via email. Overall, the response rate was 72.3% with 73 completed questionnaires and 75.3% of the participants were female.Primary and secondary outcome measures Reasons for leaving the GP track (closed and free-text answers), attitudes towards a career in GP and future career plans.Results Students left the tracks predominantly during the first 2 years of study. Students most frequently stated that structural reasons such as the distance to the GP teaching practice (74.2%), interest in another medical discipline (66.1%), private reasons (58.1%) and the GP mentor (53.1%) influenced their decision to drop out. However, 87.1% of the students indicated that their exit could not have been prevented by the project administration.Conclusions Reasons for dropping out differ between GP tracks and not all reasons are within reach of programme design and staff. Addressable issues include student selection with regard to career plans, support and strengthening of student–mentor relationships, the location of GP practices, and/or travel and accommodation support.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/12/e064481.full |
| spellingShingle | Thomas Frese Anne-Kathrin Geier Melanie Nafziger Tobias Deutsch Felix Johannes Bauch When and why do medical students drop out of extracurricular longitudinal general practice tracks? A cross-sectional study from two German medical faculties BMJ Open |
| title | When and why do medical students drop out of extracurricular longitudinal general practice tracks? A cross-sectional study from two German medical faculties |
| title_full | When and why do medical students drop out of extracurricular longitudinal general practice tracks? A cross-sectional study from two German medical faculties |
| title_fullStr | When and why do medical students drop out of extracurricular longitudinal general practice tracks? A cross-sectional study from two German medical faculties |
| title_full_unstemmed | When and why do medical students drop out of extracurricular longitudinal general practice tracks? A cross-sectional study from two German medical faculties |
| title_short | When and why do medical students drop out of extracurricular longitudinal general practice tracks? A cross-sectional study from two German medical faculties |
| title_sort | when and why do medical students drop out of extracurricular longitudinal general practice tracks a cross sectional study from two german medical faculties |
| url | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/12/e064481.full |
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