Retaining doctors in emergency medicine: an ethnographic study of emergency departments in England

Objectives: To gain a deep understanding of factors driving retention in emergency medicine. To understand in detail the day-to-day lived experience of emergency medicine doctors, to identify and explore factors influencing retention, to situate these descriptions within the current educational and health policy contexts and to advance the debate and make policy and practice recommendations.

Design: Ethnography and semistructured interviews.

Setting: Two purposively sampled emergency departments in England, with additional interview participants recruited via social media and relevant stakeholder organisations.

Participants: 41 interview participants comprising 21 emergency physicians across 2 sites, 10 former emergency physicians and 10 stakeholders, with 132 hours of observation over 11 weeks in one emergency department in England.

Results: Three key themes were developed as relevant to the day-to-day lived experience of work in the emergency department, presenting challenges to retention and opportunities for change. First, emergency physicians needed to develop workarounds to mitigate the sensory and material challenges of working in a difficult environment.Second, education influences retention through valuing, fostering competence and entrustment and supporting interdependence. These were primarily observable in the workplace through senior staff prioritising the education of more junior staff.Third, community was important for retention. Linked to education through communities of practice, it was built by brief interpersonal interactions between emergency department workers.Situating these descriptions in current policy contexts identified less than full-time working, portfolio careers and mentorship as retention strategies. Self-rostering and annualisation facilitated these retention strategies.

Conclusions: The emergency department represents a difficult environment with many challenges, yet by focusing on how doctors navigate these difficulties, we can see the way in which retention occurs in everyday practices, and that valuing staff is critical for retention.