Occupational health of general practioners in medical desert: three temporal management models

The aim of this ergonomic research is to examine the activity of general practitioners with a view to gaining insights into their work and health in the context of the growing number of medical deserts in France. It studies how general practitioners strive to strike a balance between multiple time constraints: they must follow many patients consulting them for multiple reasons (biological, psychosocial, emergencies) while at the same time organizing their work in such a way that they are able to deal with their personal imperatives. The research also aims to situate these strategies over the long term as it looks at both the professional and personal life paths of doctors. Based on ten general practitioners working in medical deserts in 2020-2021, the study reveals three time management models: a “technical” model, reflecting a biomedical approach to medicine, which is adopted by general practitioners who spend a minimum amount of time seeing a high number of patients on a daily basis while preserving their work-life balance; an “available” model, applied by doctors who devote medium to long periods of time to their patients and which factors in non-technical considerations (psychosocial, relational), potentially to the detriment of their personal lives; and a “globalist” model applied by general practitioners who carry out a “moderate” number of consultations lasting long to very long periods of time, while managing to set aside time for their personal lives as part of a “global” health approach. From a synchronic perspective, these results reveal the diversity of “temporal trade-offs” made by the doctors. From a diachronic viewpoint, the study uncovers paths marked by fatigue, health problems and one hasty departure from the profession, but also, and conversely, paths leading to a source of health as new skills are developed.