Why are healthcare professionals leaving NHS roles? A secondary analysis of routinely collected data (20 September 2024)

Summary

Much policy attention focuses on increasing the supply of workers in the English NHS but there has been less attention paid to the rise in leavers. This paper seeks to explore how existing data sets can illuminate the decision-making of leavers and inform actions that could mitigate this.

Whilst reasons for leaving differ between people, there is a relationship between intrinsic motivation (why they want to do the job) and the conditions in which they try to do the job. This study suggests that looking beyond the primary reason for leaving given in the national dataset could identify how the practice environment influences the decision.

This study can be used to improve data quality around why people leave NHS jobs. It adds understanding of the multiplicity of reasons people leave which can be addressed by employers and policy makers. It identified that there are extrinsic and intrinsic factors that need to be addressed to retain staff. The findings demonstrate leavers becoming frustrated by threats to their intrinsic motivation.