To identify and create meaningful change, we need to understand what is already known about workforce challenges, and potential solutions, for different groups. This workstream helps to understand how, why, and in what situations staff want to stay working in the NHS.
A realist approach explains how ways to improve the NHS workforce problems may work differently in different places, in different organisations, or led by different teams.
We plan to understand the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of different NHS workforce challenges by:
- Looking at what is already known about workforce issues or initiatives (things that are aimed at improving the situation). This helps us form ideas about what might be happening.
- Working with NHS staff and patients to include their views to shape our searches and interpretation of findings.
Approach and methods
We will search, review and analyse existing knowledge, from academic papers, reports and commentaries, and other sources which discuss these areas. Searches will be developed on a project-by-project basis, but we will also consider how findings from each may develop understanding of others.
Each review develops a ‘programme theory’, which provides an explanation of how features of different contexts of work may produce different outcomes.
The findings from this work will help in different ways. By understanding how and why something works we can:
- create targeted solutions that fit certain situations instead of using a general “one-size-fits-all” approach,
- help leaders know where best to put resources and money,
- learn important lessons that can be used to improve future workforce strategies,
- help to create a more supported workforce that wants to stay working in the NHS.
We will share information about our findings in the form of:
- Plain Language Summaries: Clear information for patients and members of the public about this research
- Journal publications: Scientific papers for academic audiences
- Policy briefs: Summarising key findings for policymakers
- Presentations: Sharing our findings with audiences like policymakers, academic researchers and the NHS workforces we are working with.
Areas that we are currently looking at
Through working with NHS staff and patients in different parts of the country, we have begun to research problem areas that they feel are most important. So far, these include:
1. Receptionists’ work in General Practice (how the receptionist’s role has changed and affects the work of others in GP practices and how it affects patient access)
2. Primary Care-Secondary Care Interface (the way GPs and hospital doctors communicate and how their relationships work)
Opportunities in this workstream
- As we develop each review, we will be looking for experts in each area (staff and members of the public), to advise on what to search for, and support our interpretation and understanding of findings.
The focus of our initial reviews is on two projects:
- Receptionists’ work in General Practice (how the receptionist’s role has changed and affects the work of others in GP practices and how it affects patient access).
- Primary Care-Secondary Care Communication (the ways in which GPs and hospital doctors communicate and how their relationships work).
