What motivates GPs to train medical students in their own practice? A questionnaire survey on the motivation of medical practices to train students as an approach to acquire training practices

Background: With the new licensing regulations for doctors coming into force, medical faculties are faced with the task of recruiting and quali-fying more GP colleagues to train students in their practices. Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the motivation of GPs to train students in their own medical practices. Method: A cross-sectional survey of Thuringian GPs was conducted from April to May 2020.21 items on motivation, incentives and barriers were recorded and examined using univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: The response rate was 35.8% (538/1,513). The GPs surveyed considered themselves motivated to train students in their medical practices. The motives can be described as predominantly intrinsic: the mutual exchange of knowledge, desire to share knowledge and to pro-mote future doctors. Incentives included the opportunity to keep up to date with the latest knowledge, further training and contacts with col-leagues. Barriers to teaching in the own medical practice were concerns about not being able to treat the same number of patients, a possible disruption of practice operations and lack of space. An analysis of the subgroups of GPs who were not yet teaching physicians indicated sim-ilar motives and barriers regarding training students in their practices, with a slightly lower overall motivation. Conclusion: The results describe the facets of the motivation of Thuringian GPs to train students and can be helpful for the expansion of a sustainable network of training GP practices. It is essential to ad-dress motives, to counter difficulties with individual solutions and to create targeted incentives.