Choosing general practice: What shapes medical student decisions?

About this episode

The episode discusses factors influencing UK medical students' decisions to pursue general practice with guest Catharina Savelkoul.

Today, we’re speaking to Catharina Savelkoul, a DPhil student in Health Economics based at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford. Title of paper: Factors Influencing UK Medical Students’ Choice of General Practice: A Systematic Review Available at: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2025.0226 The UK faces a projected shortage of approximately 15,000 GPs by 2036/37, with a declining proportion of UK medical graduates pursuing general practice. Previous research has identified various contributing factors but lacked a contemporary synthesis within a coherent theoretical framework. This systematic review examines factors influencing UK medical students' career decisions, finding three critical influences: curricula that inadequately represents general practice, a persistent negative hidden curriculum, and the impact of clinical placement quality. Our revised Bland-Meurer model incorporates these findings, providing a comprehensive framework to improve GP recruitment. This systematic review identifies the factors that shape UK medical students’ intentions toward general practice. Transcript This transcript was generated using AI and has not…

People in this episode

Host: Nada Khan

Guest: Catharina Savelkoul

Topics covered

• medical education
• general practice
• career choices
• health economics
• systematic review

Keywords

• general practice
• medical students
• career decisions
• health economics
• UK GPs
• curriculum
• clinical placements

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, British Journal of General Practice

Books & works: Factors Influencing UK Medical Students’ Choice of General Practice: A Systematic Review

More episodes of BJGP Interviews

• When mothers need more: Postnatal care and complex social needs · June 9, 2026 · 22 min
• Seeing skin differently: Eczema, acne and psoriasis in skin of colour · June 2, 2026 · 15 min
• ‘It’s not just thrush’: Navigating recurrent vulvovaginal thrush in primary care · May 26, 2026 · 18 min
• ‘They knew me’: Relationships, continuity and dementia care · May 19, 2026 · 13 min
• Looking back at the BJGP Research Conference 2026 · March 24, 2026 · 12 min
• Skill mix and patient trust in general practice · March 17, 2026 · 19 min