Dream Job: Country Doctor
Numerous patients, tremendous responsibility, restricted budgets: country doctors awaiting retirement often engage in a futile search for successors to take over their village practices. In 2020, there will be a shortfall of more than 7000 general practitioners in Germany – especially in the countryside, and in the Northeast in particular. Young doctors who decide to move to the countryside have their pick of destinations –essentially, they can go where they please. Communities are grateful, and recently, regional governments have even begun offering financially incentives. Nonetheless, few are willing to take the risk: the romantic image of the country doctor seen in television series simply differs too dramatically from reality. Still, there are a few who succeed in finding happiness playing the role of the young rural healer.
We portray a number of courageous young practitioners who have taken the plunge, taking over village practices where older and well-established predecessors have treated patients for decades. Can young doctors succeed in earning the trust of their new – and in many cases much older – patients? How do family members - who must leave the city as well – cope with a new rural lifestyle? We also accompany an experienced older country doctor who has practiced in his village for what seems like eternity, and is now about to retire. The lives of country doctors can be eventful ones, and we share their stories with our audience. The results are touching, amusing, but unsparingly honest as well.
