Improving senior medical workforce retention at a large teaching hospital trust.

Abstract

Purpose: To understand senior clinicians' current thinking regarding retirement at a large teaching hospital trust, the reasons behind it, and what the trust can do to improve retention of these valuable staff.

Methods: An anonymized survey followed by qualitative study from a focus group. Data from these were analysed using a thematic analysis. Participants were senior clinicians currently employed or who had taken retirement from the trust in the preceding 12 months. In total 140 respondents completed the survey, giving a response rate of 65%; 8 senior clinicians attended the focus group.

Results: The commonest reasons for taking retirement were wanting to pursue leisure interests, reaching a pensionable age, and feeling unable to sustain their workloads. A significant proportion, 29%, also cited that they did not feel valued. The commonest factors that would encourage respondents to remain at work included increased flexibility, reduced hours, and ability to come off on-call rotas. The main themes from the focus group were focusing on well-being, personalized conversations, and better/more accessible information.

Conclusion: Our project identified a number of reasons why clinicians are considering taking retirement, with a major theme of feeling valued underpinning decisions. This could influence strategies to help retain these experienced members of staff. We made a series of recommendations. If enacted, these would have a wider-reaching impact on more junior medical staff, aiding them to consider their own late-stage careers. They are also applicable and could easily be adapted when considering retention of other valued professionals within the trust. Key messages What is already known on this topic-We know that there is currently a medical workforce crisis at a time of greatest patient need, with an ageing workforce and senior staff who are choosing to retire early. Previous studies have reviewed the reasons behind these decisions but not specifically looked at changes that can be implemented at a local level to improve retention. What this study adds-We combined both quantitative and qualitative data from senior clinicians at a large teaching hospital trust in the North of England to understand current thinking regarding retirement and what the trust could do to improve their retention. How this study might affect research, practice, or policy-From our study we were able to make a series of recommendations that can be implemented at a local level to inform medical retention policies. These will also have wider impacts on junior medical staff and could be expanded to other healthcare professionals.