Physician Re-Entry: Scoping Review Protocol v1

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this scoping review is to assess the extent of literature on re-entry to understand how re-entry is defined, the main reasons for career breaks and re-entry, challenges and barriers to re-entry, as well as solutions developed to assist re-entry for physicians. Introduction: Physicians are taking breaks for a variety of reasons. 40% of women physicians reduce to part-time or exit medicine within six years of residency training. Additionally, nearly half of all inactive physicians are primary care physicians. Understanding both barriers and interventions to support re-entry for physicians is essential in the context of upcoming physician shortages. Inclusion criteria: Physicians who have taken a break or leave from their career and then re-entered the workforce will be included. This does not include medical students. Physician re-entry models, interventions including accessibility and utilization across differing reasons for breaks/leaves, outcomes will be examined. Re-entry for physicians around the world will be studied without limitations on country or setting. Race, ethnicity, and gender of physicians will be extracted from studies. Methods: Following PRISMA and JBI reporting guidelines, we plan to search MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, and relevant medical associations for English language, peer-reviewed studies. We will include all year-ranges that are indexed within each database. Eligibility screening (title/abstract and full-text) and data extraction will be completed by at least two independent reviewers and conflicts will be resolved as a team. Bibliographic information and key study characteristics from included studies will be collected using a tool that will be developed through an iterative process.