ACH Medical Journal

Abstract

Introduction: The reasons why family medicine specialists tend to
choose this branch show differences in social and academic aspects. In this study, it was aimed to determine the reasons for choosing family medicine as the specialty of family medicine resident doctors and their concerns and fears while choosing their specialty.
Methods: Our study is a cross-sectional observational study. 275 assistant doctors who started family medicine specialization training
in Ankara between 2018-2020and are actively working constitute our study population. The participants were asked to score 0: the
most ineffective, 10: the most effective, for the reasons for preferring family medicine consisting of 20 propositions and their concerns while choosing family medicine consisting of 7 propositions.
Result: A total of 130 volunteer participants, who filled out the questionnaire completely, were included in the study. According to the survey
results, the most important reasons to select family medicine specialty
were; the desire to “spend more time with the family, the environment, and
themselves”, “less night and weekend shifts” and the desire for a “more
easy and comfortable life”. On the other hand, the main concerns of family medicine residents when choosing this specialty were “unnecessary
rest reports demands” and “unnecessary medication demands” by patients.
Conclusion: While it was determined that the personal factors of the residents were at the center of the reasons for choosing the family medicine branch, the characteristics and factors related to the discipline were
the secondary preference reasons. On the other hand, it is necessary to
take measures against alarming situations and develop new policies.