The use of the exit interview to reduce turnover amongst healthcare professionals

Exit interviews are widely used in healthcare organisations to identify reasons for staff attrition, yet their usefulness in limiting turnover is unclear.

To determine the effectiveness of various exit interview strategies in decreasing turnover rates amongst healthcare professionals.

We used a comprehensive search strategy including an electronic search of the following databases: DARE, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ERIC (search date: 7 September 2010) and EPOC Specialised Register (search date: 30 September 2009). We also screened the reference lists of included studies and relevant reviews.

Randomised controlled trials, controlled clinical trials, controlled before and after studies and interrupted time series studies comparing turnover rates between healthcare professionals who had undergone one form of exit interview with another form of exit interview or with no interview.

Two review authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data.

The search identified 1560 citations of which we considered 19 potentially relevant. The two authors independently reviewed the abstracts of these studies and retrieved the full texts of eight studies. We excluded all eight following independent assessment. They were either interviews, commentaries on how to do an exit interview or descriptive studies about reasons for leaving. We found no trials that matched our inclusion criteria.

Evidence about the effectiveness of exit interviews to reduce turnover is currently not available. However, exit interviews may provide useful information about the work environment which, in turn, may be useful in the development of interventions to reduce turnover.