Evidence map›Paper›PMID 12014532›Full record

ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2002

Attitude of medical students towards general practice and general practitioners.

Emma Henderson, Anita Berlin, Jon Fuller

Open access · greenAbstract readMulticenter Study
In one paragraph

Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2002. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
39citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
2.4field-weighted citation impact, top 12% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

39 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 95 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Factors influencing UK medical students' choice of general practice: a systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026
    Pooled it
  2. The impact of role modelling on the future general practitioner workforce: a systematic review.Education for primary care : an official publication of the Association of Course Organisers, National Association of GP Tutors, World Organisation of Family Doctors · 2022
    Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Attitudes of newly qualified doctors towards a career in general practice: a qualitative focus group study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2017
    Article
  18. GP careers: changing student perspectives.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2014
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Are GP career intentions more prevalent in UCL Primary Health Care iBSc students?The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2014
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.

Emma HendersonDepartment of Primary Health Care and General Practice, Imperial College School of Medicine, London.
Anita Berlin
Jon Fuller
Primary HealthCare · MT

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe stimuli for this work came from the need to identify and understand the origin of students' attitudes towards general practice in the context of undergraduate curriculum reform and concerns about recruitment.

aimTo evaluate attitudes of medical students towards general practice as a specialty and general practitioners (GPs) as doctors and explore factors influencing students' attitudes and intended career choice. DESIGN OF STUDY: Cross-sectional survey.

settingFinal-year students at two London medical schools.

methodQuestionnaires were distributed to 984 students and the results analysed using SPSS analysis.

resultsThe mean response rate was 72% (700/984). Medical students had a positive attitude towards general practice as a specialty (mean Likert score = 3.90/5, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.86 to 3.94) and towards GPs as doctors (mean Likert score = 3.62/5, 95% CI = 3.59 to 3.66). They rated personal experience of GPs as the most important factor influencing their attitude. Students' attitudes towards general practice and GPs were more positive (P<0.001) in the fifth year. First-year students perceived the media to have a more important role in influencing their attitude than those in the fifth year(P<0.001). General practice was the only career option to significantly increase in popularity between the first and final year(P < 0.001).

conclusionsMedical students end their undergraduate years with a more positive attitude towards general practice than has been reported elsewhere recently. This may be partially explained by the greater contact with GPs and suggests that efforts by medical schools to ensure a more balanced, community-based curriculum promotes positive attitudes to general practice. The influence of the media on the first years of medical school requiresfurther investigation.

Indexed as

Attitude of Health PersonnelFamily PracticeCareer ChoiceCross-Sectional StudiesFemaleHumansMalePhysicians, FamilyStudents, MedicalSurveys and QuestionnairesUnited Kingdom

Identifiers

PMID12014532
PMCPMC1314290
OpenAlexW1868639216

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.