What can healthcare organisations do to improve medical engagement? A systematic review

Abstract

Background Medical engagement is linked to improved outcomes for staff and patients including a reduction in staff turnover. There are significant problems with recruitment and retention of doctors globally, it is, therefore, important to try to increase medical engagement within healthcare organisations. This systematic review aimed to review evidence from 2018 to 2023 from peer-reviewed journals on interventions to improve medical engagement and from this generate practical recommendations for healthcare organisations. Method A search strategy was developed and used across six databases alongside citation searching. Articles were screened to check whether they met the study criteria and were then critically appraised. The interventions were extracted and a thematic analysis, using an inductive approach, was undertaken. Results 15 articles were found to have met the criteria, however, the studies were generally found to be of low-quality research evidence. The interventions from the articles were grouped into nine themes covering topics such as ‘Improvements to working conditions’, ‘Increasing support to doctors’ and ‘Rewards/incentives/recognition’. Conclusion The review generated a wide range of interventions which could be used to improve medical engagement, however, critical appraisal revealed that they were of low-quality evidence, so their effectiveness should be interpreted with some caution. The majority of the interventions were transferable to healthcare settings, with some limitations depending on the country. Several HR models were described as options for implementing these interventions within healthcare organisations. Further high-quality research is needed in this area.