Objectives To develop a core outcome set (COS) to capture and measure the well-being of doctors working in the National Health Service (NHS).
Design An online Delphi study.
Setting UK NHS.
Participants Participants from four stakeholder groups: (1) those who might use the COS in research, (2) organisations that measure/capture NHS staff well-being, (3) professionals with experience managing NHS staff well-being and (4) NHS doctors were identified through authorship of relevant publications, attendee lists of doctor well-being conferences and meetings, professional bodies, participation in a previous study and recommendations from others. They were recruited via email.
Interventions A two-stage process: (1) creating a list of 43 well-being outcomes informed by a systematic review of well-being measurement instruments, a survey of UK doctors and two doctor engagement workshops and (2) an online Delphi study (with two rounds) to reach consensus. Outcomes were rated on a 9-point Likert scale; ‘consensus’ was reached when =75% agreed that an outcome was critical for inclusion in the COS.
Results 52 participants completed both Delphi rounds. Seven well-being outcomes met the threshold for inclusion in the COS: general well-being, health, personal safety, job satisfaction, morale, life work balance and good clinical practice.
Conclusions Use of the COS has the potential to reduce heterogeneity and standardise the capture and measurement of doctor well-being, and ensure outcomes important to all stakeholders are reported.
Gemma Simons, Naomi Klepacz, David S Baldwin
Disease Category: Mental health
Disease Name: N/A
Age Range: 18 - 100
Sex: Either
Nature of Intervention: N/A
- Clinical experts
- Conference participants
- Consumers (patients)
- Economists
- Governmental agencies
- Methodologists
- Patient/ support group representatives
- Policy makers
- Regulatory agency representatives
- Researchers
- Service commissioners
- Service providers
- Service users
- Statisticians
- COS for clinical trials or clinical research
- COS for practice
- Consensus conference
- Delphi process
- Focus group(s)
- Interview
- Survey
- Systematic review
The Delphi method of asking a group of experts to respond to questionnaires will be used to obtain a consensus opinion. The questionnaires are informed by a systematic review of wellbeing measures used in doctors. The first Delphi round will be conducted face to face at a conference. Subsequent rounds will be conducted online.
Experts are defined in this study as “individuals who have been or are involved in the concept, design, organisation, delivery, teaching, audit, governance, policy, guidance, or research, of wellbeing in health and social care professional wellbeing”. Experts from regulatory bodies and commissioners will also be included.
Experts were identified through previous wellbeing conference proceedings, publications on wellbeing including policy and guidance and recommendations from other experts.
Experts will be given the summarised results of surveys and individual interviews completed by doctors to help inform their answers. They will also be given the summarised results of patient and the public focus groups.
The 9 point Likert scale will be used in the Delphi Surveys. Where 75% of participants have scored an outcome 1-3, this outcome will be considered of limited importance. Where an outcome is score 4-6 by 75% of participants, an outcome will be considered important, but not critical. When an outcome is scored 7-9 by 75% of participants it will be considered critical.