General Practice as a career choice among undergraduate medical students in Greece

The sample consisted of final year students in the Medical School of the University of Athens, Greece. Students filled in a self-reported questionnaire focusing on medical specialization, and GP in particular.Response rate was 82.5% with 1021 questionnaires collected, out of 1237 eligible medical students. Only 44 out of the 1021 (4.3%) respondents stated that GP is -or could be- among their choices for specialty. The most popular medical specialty was General Surgery (10.9%), followed by Cardiology (9.6%), Endocrinology (8.7%) and Obstetrics-Gynaecology (8.3%). The most common criterion for choosing GP was the guaranteed employment on completion of the residency (54.6%) while a 56.6% of total respondents were positive to the introduction of GP/FM as a curriculum course during University studies.Despite the great needs, GP specialty is currently not a career option among undergraduate students of the greater Medical University in Greece and is still held in low esteem. A university department responsible for undergraduate teaching, promotion and research in GP (where not available) is essential; the status of undergraduate training in general practice/family medicine seems to be one of the most important factors that influence physician career choices regarding primary care specialties.The necessity of implementing innovative and developmental changes in primary care is of great importance, since the need for effective and efficient primary health care services worldwide, is imperative. One of the key-issues in improving the future care services is the human resources sector, which in practical terms is actually reflected in the number of medical students who choose General Practice/Family Medicine (GP/FM) as a specialty. There is a progressive decline in the number of physicians who choose GP/FM as a specialty in most countries worldwide, and many countries have recently increased GP's annual wages in order to attract postgraduate students in their residency traini