Background: Postgraduate training in General Practice in Ireland is a 4-year specialist training scheme. The initial two years are spent in hospital posts and the final two years are spent in General Practice. The transition from hospital medicine to General Practice can be a challenging experience for General Practice (GP) Trainees. Research to date has explored the transition from medical student to doctor, and from hospital doctor to consultant, however, the transition from hospital doctor to GP has not been explored. A negative experience at this key point of transition to General Practice has been shown to negatively affect a registrars decision to stay in the GP professional post graduation. In the context of the current GP retention challenges in Ireland it is paramount that we optimise GP Trainees experience of this key point of professional transition.
Aim: The aim of this study is to explore GP Registrars experiences of moving from hospital medicine to General Practice with a view to developing recommendations for the Irish College of General Practitioners.
Methods: This is a qualitative study. An initial focus group with 4th year GP Registrars on the Cork Postgraduate GP Training Scheme will inform the development of a topic guide. The topic guide will be used to guide one-to-one semi structured interviews with GP Registrars nationally (~ 12 interviews). Third and fourth year GP Registrars will be invited to participate via an email sent to thirteen GP Training Schemes in Ireland. The semi-structured interviews will be conducted either in-person or via MS Teams. The data will be analysed using framework analysis.
Anticipated outcome: An understanding of what challenges GP registrars experience which will inform the development of recommendations for the Irish College of General Practitioners to better support GP Registrars at this key point of professional transition.