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Background: Early career medical professionals experience stress and burnout at higher levels than the wider community. Burnout can arise with competing demands of life and career, which is evident in early career development, where family planning can coincide with specialty training. General practice may be seen as a family friendly career option; however, few studies examine the experience of general practice trainees with stress and burnout and the impact that parenting has on their experience. This study aims to explore the experience of stress and burnout in general practice registrars and the exacerbating and protective factors, with a focus on the experiences of two groups of registrars, those that have children, and those that do not. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted with 14 participants, who were interviewed with questions exploring experiences of stress and burnout. Participants were grouped into those with children and those without children. The transcripts were thematically analysed. Results: Themes were identified as those that contributed to stress and burnout (such as time, financial concerns and isolation) and those factors that reduced stress and burnout (such as support from others and being respected and valued within the workplace). Parenting was identified as both a factor that could contribute to and reduce stress and burnout. Conclusions: Stress and burnout are important foci for future research and policy to ensure the sustainability of general practice. System based and individual focused policies, including individualising training to support parenting, are required to ensure that registrars are supported through their training years and beyond. General practice needs to work to increase recruitment of doctors, reduce early career burnout and to retain GPs in the long term. Early career medical professionals experience stress and burnout at higher levels than the wider community. General practice may have traditionally been seen as a family friendly career option, however, unfortunately it may be no longer. This paper examines the experience of GP trainees with stress and burnout and the impact that parenting has on their experience and looks at solutions to improve conditions for early to mid career GPs, and hopefully make general practice more attractive for future doctors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study examined general practitioners' (GPs) perspectives on delivering end-of-life care in the New Zealand residential aged care context. A general inductive approach to the data collected from semi-structured interviews with 17 GPs from 15 different New Zealand general practices was taken. Findings examine: (1) GPs' life experience; (2) the GP relationship with the facilities and provision of end-of-life care; (3) the GP interaction with families of dying residents; and (4) GP relationship with hospice. The nature of the GP relationship with the facility influenced GP involvement in end-of-life care in aged care facilities, with GPs not always able to direct a facility's end-of-life care decisions for specific residents. GP participation in end-of-life care was constrained by GP time availability and the costs to the facilities for that time. GPs reported seldom using hospice services for residents, but did use the reputation (cachet) associated with hospice practices to provide an authoritative buffer for their end-of-life clinical decisions when talking with families and residents. GP training in end-of-life care, especially for those with dementia, was reported as ad hoc and done through informal mentoring between GPs. This paper is on a topic of increasing policy importance. With the aging of the population, the pressure on our aged care facilities will become intense. This paper highlights how GPs, the main source of clinical supervision in residential aged care, do their job and what the issues are that facilitate and impede their participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Telehealth became more widely used when the global COVID-19 pandemic restricted access to in-person consultations for primary care during periods of 'lockdown'. Methods: In 2021 (August–September), 15-to 25-year-olds in the Wellington region of Aotearoa New Zealand were invited to participate in an online survey that aimed to find out about telehealth experiences, perceived advantages and disadvantages, and willingness to use it for receipt of primary care. Results: Surveys were completed by 346 participants, 133 of whom had ever used telehealth (38%). Overall, 73% (84/115) were happy with health care received via telehealth, but only 26% preferred it to in-person consultations. Perceived benefits related to convenience and time efficiency, but participants had concerns about the inability to be physically examined, technological issues, clarity around follow-up actions, payment and lack of privacy. All participants had access to a phone or device, yet almost half reported challenges with connectivity, coverage or data that might limit their ability to access telehealth (47.3%, 159/336). Half of participants wanted to use telehealth in future (preferring phone over video (160/315)). Conclusions: Young people surveyed acknowledged the convenience of telehealth, but many were hesitant about receiving primary care in this way. Understanding young people's reservations and provision of detailed information about what telehealth entails will help prepare and support them to use telehealth in future. Telehealth has become more widely used since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but little is known about how young people view this method for receipt of routine primary care. In this online survey, young people appreciated the convenience aspects of telehealth, but had a range of concerns that made them hesitant to access health care this way. To prepare and support young people to use telehealth, their reservations need to be understood and addressed with information about the processes provided in advance of the consultation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]