{
  "abstract": "Background General practice in the UK faces workforce shortages and declining morale. Understanding which aspects make general practice a rewarding career is important for informing retention strategies and promoting professional satisfaction at practice level.Aim To identify which aspects of working as a general practitioner (GP) are most rewarding and how these relate to demographic and practice characteristics. Additionally, to provide practical recommendations for practice leaders and policymakers on how these aspects can be supported and sustained.Design and setting A national cross-sectional web-based survey of practising GPs in the UK conducted between July and October 2025.Method An online questionnaire invited GPs to describe, in free text, what they found most rewarding about their career. Responses (n=955) were analysed inductively using thematic analysis in NVivo V.15. Coding reliability was assessed by dual independent coding. Frequencies of key themes were summarised and explored across demographic and professional characteristics.Results Continuity of care was the dominant theme, cited by almost half of GPs (45%), followed by mentions of variety or breadth of practice (26%) and flexibility or work–life balance (27%).Conclusions Continuity of care emerged as the most frequently cited source of professional reward for GPs in this sample, complementing earlier work that highlights continuity as the aspect patients also value most in general practice. The erosion of longitudinal patient continuity under current access-focused models of care delivery may therefore carry consequences beyond patient health outcomes and satisfaction, potentially also affecting workforce retention. Re-establishing continuity within modern primary care need not mean reverting to older models, but embedding relationship-based care as a core priority.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Catharina Savelkoul"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Ethan Phillips"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Joan Madia"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Sophie Park"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Stavros Petrou"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Simon de Lusigan"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Jonathan Taylor"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Catia Nicodemo"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Continuity of care matters to GPs: implications for leadership and workforce planning",
  "uid": "f1abd054-c791-539d-8215-19a75982a25a"
}