There is a gap between healthcare workforce research and decision-making
in policy and practice. This matters more than ever given the urgent
staffing crisis, with shortfalls of key workers and increasing service
pressures. As a national research network, we held the first ever UK
forum on health and care workforce research and evidence in March 2023
which aimed to bridge this gap. We brought together clinical and system
leaders, policymakers and regulators with workforce researchers. Fifteen
sessions convened by leading experts combined knowledge exchange with
deliberative dialogue over two days. Topics ranged from workforce
analytics, forecasting, international migration to interprofessional
working. In these small groups, important knowledge gaps were
identified, where existing research had not reached decision-makers.
Managers were not aware of accepted high quality evidence in areas like
the relationship between registered nurse staffing levels and patient
outcomes. Participants also identified important gaps in research, both
topic area and study design. More work is needed to engage new
disciplines, from labour economics and occupational health to academic
human resources. Mobilising knowledge across disciplines will strengthen
the quality and range of research as well as identifying relevant and
novel interventions. Discussion at the forum highlighted a number of
national and local workforce initiatives which had been implemented at
pace, from virtual wards to e-rostering and apprentice levies, without a
good evidence base or concurrent evaluation. The pandemic had
accelerated many changes, including important shifts in skill mix and
new roles with little learning from other countries and systems.
Existing evaluations were often small-scale or focused on individual,
rather than organisational, solutions in areas such as staff wellbeing.
The paper provides a summary of an emerging UK workforce research agenda
developed at the forum meeting, together with actions to build workforce
research capacity and increase reach of findings into policy and
practice.