Why young doctors stay in SA

South Australia is the number one choice for Adelaide medical graduates wanting to start their careers in medicine, according to new research.

A new study shows that four out of every five University of Adelaide medicine graduates wanted to begin internships in South Australia last year.

The findings are contained in a report conducted by the Department of General Practice at the University of Adelaide, and the Adelaide to Outback GP Training Program.

The report, "Where to from here? Characteristics and career determinants of interns in South Australia in 2003", looks at the career decision-making process made by interns (who are classified as doctors in their first year after graduating from medical school) in the five South Australian teaching hospitals.

Investigators Caroline Laurence and Taryn Elliott examined which factors interns considered important in making decisions about their careers.

They found that more than 80% of 2002 graduates from the University of Adelaide applied to do their internship in South Australia, with 45% of Flinders graduates doing likewise.

For interns, there were five main criteria that influenced their career decision-making:

• Job satisfaction (e.g. the type of work involved, whether there was variety)
  
• Lifestyle (e.g. having the opportunity to spend time with partners and family)
  
• Career path (e.g. the potential for litigation, their earnings)
  
• Training programs (e.g. their flexibility, cost and length all important factors)
  
• Job setting (e.g. hospital or community based, and rural or urban based)

"What we have found with this most recent group of interns is that more of them are delaying their decision about their speciality path until later in their training," said Ms Laurence, who is a Research Fellow in the Department of General Practice.

"Before, the majority would make their decision early on in their postgraduate training, such as their intern year, but now for more than half, they wait until the second or third year.

"One of the reasons for this could be that as an intern it is their first year where they are fully exposed to what the job is like, with all the pressures and responsibilities, and their thoughts about what they want to do may change as a result of that."

The research was also conducted to find possible reasons for why General Practice, while still one of the most popular specialities, is beginning to attract fewer doctors.

"We think one of the main reasons could be that General Practice is not a rotation for speciality training during the intern year," Ms Elliott said.
"While rotations are only two to three-week blocks, the experience gained in that time is vital in their decision-making - they meet doctors and specialists in each particular area who become role models and influence how the interns see the different specialities.

"It would be good for General Practice to be offered as a rotation so that junior doctors are exposed to it much earlier than they are now, and under the new MediCare Plus scheme known as the Prevocational General Practice Placement Program, there is provision for this to occur."

Story by Ben Osborne