Understanding the Impact of Professional Motivation on the Workforce Crisis in Medicine: a Rapid Review

Background: The NHS is facing a workforce crisis. Responses to date have focused on improving recruitment of staff, but less attention has been paid to retention.

Aim: To conduct a rapid review using Rosabeth Moss Kanter's three Ms model of workforce motivation as a sensitising framework to examine the current medical workforce crisis. The work considers how insights from research in other professions offers new thinking for understanding what motivates doctors to continue working.

Design & Setting: Rapid literature review with secondary analysis of existing research examining reasons for leaving medicine.

Method: A systematic search strategy was developed with the aid of an information specialist. The search terms used were: medical professionals, retention, and NHS. The exclusions were: commentaries, non-medical professionals, non-English language, and it was limited to post-1990. The search was applied to three electronic databases, MEDLINE, Embase, and Healthcare Management Information Consortium (HMIC). This produced a dataset describing study design, and factors related to motivation for leaving the medical profession. Comparative thematic analysis distilled core themes explaining the reasons for leaving and their relation to the three Ms model.

Results: Of 3389 abstracts identified, screening and assessment produced 82 articles included in the final analysis. Thematic analysis identified four key themes: low morale, disconnect, unmanageable change, and lack of personal and professional support. The themes of mastery, membership, and meaning were substantially present within the dataset.

Conclusion: Kanter's three Ms model of motivation can be applied to the medical workforce to understand retention issues. This work supports the development of targeted solutions to tackle the worsening workforce crisis.