Occupational isolation among general practitioners in Finland.

Background: It is proposed that isolation in general practice is one of the factors that leads to work-related stress and the low attraction of this work. In Finland, 71% of physicians who worked or had worked in a primary health care centre agreed with the statement 'working as a doctor in a health centre is too often isolated work'.

Aims: To gain a deeper understanding of this feeling and to find out which factors constitute it.

Methods: A qualitative in-depth interview study of 32 physicians working in a primary health care centre in Finland. Qualitative analysis of transcribed verbatim interviews using a constant comparison method.

Results: The main components of isolation were making decisions alone, lack of collaboration with other workers in the health centre and secondary care specialists, not being a part of the work community and lack of mentoring at work.

Conclusions: Enabling flexible teamwork and social and professional support networks are the key issues in solving the problem of occupational isolation in general practice.