General practice workforce retention strategies: an umbrella review

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Primary Care Workforce Studies
• Evidence Synthesis

Background:

• Retention of the general practice workforce is crucial for primary care.
• International evidence on effective retention interventions is fragmented.
• Gaps exist in understanding interventions across different countries and workforce groups.

Purpose of the Study:

• To summarize international evidence on interventions supporting general practice workforce retention.
• To map existing evidence by country, intervention method, and workforce group.
• To identify trends and gaps in retention intervention research.

Main Methods:

• An umbrella overview of systematic reviews was conducted.
• Evidence was mapped by occupational group (general practitioners, nurses, mixed), intervention type, and outcome.
• Included reviews evaluated workforce interventions; exploratory studies were excluded.

Main Results:

• Five reviews were included from 4,919 identified articles.
• Most evidence originated from Australia and the US.
• Professional development and supportive environments showed stronger evidence; financial incentives had mixed findings; some interventions and groups lacked formal evaluations.

Conclusions:

• The current research highlights a need for more evaluations of interventions aimed at retaining the general practice workforce.
• Further research should focus on broader international settings.
• Developing and evaluating targeted interventions is essential for workforce stability.