Investigating the conditions in which women GPs thrive in General Practice: What works, for whom, how and in what circumstances?

This project aims to investigate the conditions in which women GPs work, and identify strategies that may help them to thrive in order to better recruit, support, and retain them. We will produce recommendations for how women GPs, managers, employers, policy makers, and training providers can more effectively support this staff group to thrive at work.

Background: Women GPs, internationally, experienced greater mental health and wellbeing problems than male GPs. Women GPs typically spend longer with patients and take on more emotional labour, which may contribute to burnout and turnover. The lack of flexibility and support around part time working and childcare provision often affects women GPs ability to take on wider responsibilities such a partner roles than male GPs. Whilst there is a global trend of increasing numbers of women training as doctors, this is not a group who appear to be thriving at work. To thrive at work means to have a positive psychological state; this can be influenced by individual and work-related factors. Evidence about how to create the conditions to thrive at work has not yet been translated into the general practice setting, nor to women GPs. Our review will bring together a wide range of available evidence to indicate ways women GPs can thrive (or not) at work in order to better recruit, support and retain them.

Methods: This study will answer questions and generate evidence to show how, why, for whom and in what contexts women GPs can thrive in General Practice. This evidence will be identified using an approach called a 'realist review', where we will locate published documents on the topic, so that we can develop an understanding as to how, why, for whom and in what contexts women GPs thrive at work. We will include: academic literature, policy documents, media items and guidelines. This will help us to identify and understand the best strategies for supporting women GPs at work, and, crucially, under in what circumstances certain strategies may work best, so that we can produce appropriate recommendations.

PPI/Stakeholder involvement: Our PPI group will be comprised of two GPs, and three patient and public representatives. They will be regularly involved throughout this project and contribute to output development. alongside our wider stakeholder group. We have discussed the project with two GPs and one patient representative prior. All supported the urgent need for this work. For example: "Having worked as a GP for over 25 years, I can honestly say it has never been tougher. Every woman GP is a unique individual with their own, skills, experience and priorities, but there is a common thread which has led us to where we are now , and where we want to be in the future, and by evaluating and learning from research into what working conditions women GPs need to truly thrive we can ensure that future is sustainable for ourselves, and as a result for the care of our patients. By providing recommendations, this study aims to support individuals and organisations to provide working environments where women GPs can survive and thrive, hopefully encouraging women doctors of the future to aspire to a lifelong and rewarding career in general practice".

Dissemination: Our stakeholders including patients, public and professionals, will help share and promote our findings (including recommendations, and patient summaries), leveraging our wider connections across the NHS.

For more information see: https://www.dev.fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR161818