Now in its third year, the competition aims to showcase the many reasons why trainee doctors believe general practice is the career for them. The final winner of this year’s competition will be selected by Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the RCGP.
The competition
All UK medical students are invited to write an essay of no more than 500 words explaining why they want to become a GP. The best entries will be published on GPonline, and the winning author will receive a John Lewis voucher worth £100.
The closing date is 26 January 2018.
Professor Stokes-Lampard said: ‘This competition is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the many things that are great about general practice – and persuade more medical students and foundation doctors to become GPs.
‘We are under intense pressures – there is no escaping the fact that being a GP is a tough – but as chair of the RCGP, one of my priorities is to restore some joy to the profession, both to remind existing GPs why we chose this career in the first place, and encourage potential GPs to join. I’m really looking forward to reading the Choosing General Practice entries this year.’
To enter
Email GPonline editor Emma Bower at emma.bower@haymarket.com with your 500-word piece explaining why you are choosing general practice for your career to enter. The closing date is 26 January 2018.
Why choose general practice?
While general practice faces many difficulties, not least a recruitment and retention crisis, the entries to last year’s Choosing General Practice competition showed that there is no shortage of enthusiasm for the profession from the UK’s medical students.
Last year’s overall winner was Zoe Bush, then a fifth-year medical student at Bristol University. Zoe said that she had entered the competition to help encourage other medical students to consider general practice as a future career
‘I love explaining to others why I'm choosing general practice, and I'm passionate about engaging with students and encouraging them to consider a career in this specialty,’ she said.
You can read her winning entry here.
