ArticleBMC primary care2022
Understanding the invisible workforce: lessons for general practice from a survey of receptionists.
Article in BMC primary care, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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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.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of the clinically oriented roles of a general practice receptionist: a systematic review with narrative synthesis.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Pooled it
- Patient aggression towards receptionists in general practice: a systematic review.Family medicine and community health · 2023Pooled it
- English general practice in a period of change: a mixed-methods study of staff and patient perspectives.BJGP open · 2026Article
- Enhancing System Empathy Within a UK Emergency Department: A Feasibility Interprofessional Priority Setting Exercise.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2026Article
- Primary care receptionists influence migrant access to healthcare by acting as street-level bureaucrats: a scoping review.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Elevating an invisible role: co-designing solutions to optimize medical office assistants in primary care.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Understanding the contextual and causal factors shaping the work of receptionists in general practice: a realist review protocol.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Bugbears in the Waiting Room: Revisiting Arber and Sawyer's Classic Study of GP Reception Work Using Ethnography in Eight English General Practices.Sociology of health & illness · 2025Article
- Evolution of the general practice receptionist role and online services: a qualitative study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- Safety issues in post-discharge care of older patients in general practice: an ethnographic study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- General Practice Community Pharmacist Consultation Service: an exploratory patient survey.BJGP open · 2025Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical office assistants (MOAs) working in primary care: a qualitative study.BJGP open · 2025Article
- The Impact and Wider Implications of Remote Consultations for General Practice in Norway: Qualitative Study Among Norwegian Contract General Practitioners.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- The Doctors, Their Patients, and the Symptom Checker App: Qualitative Interview Study With General Practitioners in Germany.JMIR human factors · 2024Article
- Article
- Enhancing access to primary care is critical to the future of an equitable health service: using process visualisation to understand the impact of national policy in the UK.Frontiers in health services · 2024Article
- Revealing administrative staff roles in primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of family physicians' perspectives.Frontiers in health services · 2024Article
- A Bibliometric Analysis of Telephone Triage Research to 2021 Using VOSviewer.BioMed research international · 2024Review
- "Heliyon · 2023Article
- How new clinical roles in primary care impact on equitable distribution of workforce: a retrospective study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe significance of the role of receptionists during the recent shift to remote triage has been widely recognised and they will have a significant role to play in UK general practice as it continues to cope with a huge increase in demand exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. To maximise their contribution, it is important the social and occupational characteristics of the modern receptionist are understood, alongside their attitudes towards the role and their perceptions of the support and training they receive .
methodsWe used convenience and cross-sectional sampling to survey the demographic characteristics of receptionists and various aspects of their role and responsibilities. This included the training received, specific tasks performed, job satisfaction, the importance of the role, and their interaction with clinical and non-clinical colleagues. We also captured data on the characteristics of their practice including the number of GPs and location.
resultsA total of 70 participants completed the survey (16 postal and 54 online responses) of whom the majority were white (97.2%), female (98.6%), and aged 40 and over (56.7%). The majority of the training focussed on customer service (72.9%), telephone (64.3%), and medical administration skills (58.6%). Just over a quarter had received training in basic triage (25.7%). A standard multiple regression model revealed that the strongest predictor of satisfaction was support from practice GPs (β = .65, p <.001) there were also significant positive correlations between satisfaction and appreciation from GPs, r(68) = .609, p < .001.
conclusionThis study has provided a much-needed update on the demographics, duties, and job satisfaction of GP receptionists. The need for diversification of the workforce to reflect the range of primary care patients warrants consideration in light of continuing variation in access along lines of gender andethnicity. Training continues to focus on administrative duties not on the clinically relevant aspects of their role such as triage.
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Registered trials
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.