Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29230305›Full record

ArticleJRSM open2017

Changes needed to medicine in the UK before senior UK-trained doctors, working outside the UK, will return: questionnaire surveys undertaken between 2004 and 2015.

Trevor W Lambert, Fay Smith, Michael J Goldacre

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in JRSM open, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Trevor W LambertUK Medical Careers Research Group, Unit of Health-Care Epidemiology, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK.
Fay SmithUK Medical Careers Research Group, Unit of Health-Care Epidemiology, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-6479-0150
Michael J GoldacreUK Medical Careers Research Group, Unit of Health-Care Epidemiology, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo report the changes to UK medicine which doctors who have emigrated tell us would increase their likelihood of returning to a career in UK medicine.

designQuestionnaire survey.

settingUK-trained medical graduates.

participantsQuestionnaires were sent 11 years after graduation to 7158 doctors who qualified in 1993 and 1996 in the UK: 4763 questionnaires were returned. Questionnaires were sent 17 and 19 years after graduation to the same cohorts: 4554 questionnaires were returned.

main outcome measuresComments from doctors working abroad about changes needed to UK medicine before they would return.

resultsEleven years after graduation, 290 (6%) of respondents were working in medicine abroad; 277 (6%) were doing so 17/19 years after graduation. Eleven years after graduation, 53% of doctors working abroad indicated that they did not intend to return, and 71% did so 17/19 years after graduation. These respondents reported a number of changes which would need to be made to UK medicine in order to increase the likelihood of them returning. The most frequently mentioned changes cited concerned 'politics/management/funding', 'pay/pension', 'posts/security/opportunities', 'working conditions/hours', and 'factors outside medicine'.

conclusionsPolicy attention to factors including funding, pay, management and particularly the clinical-political interface, working hours, and work-life balance may pay dividends for all, both in terms of persuading some established doctors to return and, perhaps more importantly, encouraging other, younger doctors to believe that the UK and the National Health Service can offer them a satisfying and rewarding career.

Indexed as

attitude of health personnelcareer choiceemigrationmedical staffPhysicianstravel

Identifiers

PMID29230305
PMCPMC5718314

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.