Medical students and recent medical graduates in the Gen Y age bracket were surveyed or participated in a focus group recently, and  it showed that if they were interested in a career in general practice, it tended to be because if fit well with a desire for work and lifestyle balance.

The focus group participants said that they were attracted to medicine because it is ‘considered intriguing and offers eminence’. The reasons for choosing a medical career were: interest in medicine, interest in science, interest in people, family members are doctors, experiences when younger/growing up, prestige, power, money, job security, sense of job being ‘worthwhile’, couldn’t think of anything else would like to do, and the challenge.

The study was carried out by Ipsos Healthcare, and was published in August 2012.