Recruiting General Practitioners in England to Participate in Qualitative Research: Challenges, Strategies, and Solutions

Abstract

In 2012, I conducted my first PhD study exploring general practitioners' attitudes toward online patient feedback. After designing the research questions and topic guide to conduct the interviews, I reviewed existing literature where authors described recruiting general practitioners to take part in research. I found there was some focus in the literature on the challenges associated with low general practitioner participation in survey-based and intervention studies, but little that described the process, experience, and challenges associated with recruiting general practitioners to take part in qualitative research. Although general practitioners are known to be a difficult group to recruit to take part in research, the recruitment process I experienced was much more challenging than I had anticipated. This case study sheds light on my experience of recruiting 20 general practitioners in England to an interview-based study, and outlines a critical reflection on the eight strategies used for recruitment. I started by using traditional methods such as postal invitations and faxes to recruit general practitioners. Due to the very low success rate, I resorted to using more inexpensive and creative methods, such as sending an invitation letter through email, advertising in general practitioner Email Newsletters, seeking help from existing research networks, recruiting through friends and acquaintances, and using social media. In this case study, I also describe the participants' (general practitioners') motivations for taking part in the study, and I conclude with offering suggestions on how to maximize response rates to general practitioner-based qualitative studies in England. Learning Outcomes By the end of the case, students should be able to Have a better understanding of the potential challenges faced when recruiting general practitioners (GPs) to take part in research Understand that sometimes probability sampling cannot be used due to difficulties with recruiting Learn to be creative and flexible when recruiting participants to research Understand the strategies and approaches that could be used to increase GP participation in research Project Overview and Context In 2012, I embarked on conducting a qualitative interview study with general practitioners (GPs), exploring their attitudes toward online patient feedback. GPs are the first point of call for patients in the United Kingdom. They treat all common medical conditions and refer patients to hospitals or other medical services for specialist or urgent care. Once my research questions and interview topic guide was designed, I focused my energies on exploring what strategies I should use for recruiting GPs to the study and what type of response rate I should expect.

Advanced Clinical Practitioners in Primary Care in the UK: A Qualitative Study of Workforce Transformation

“…Hence, there were a total of 26 individuals in the sample: 8 GPs (4 male, 4 female), 9 ACPs (7 female, 2 male) and 9 PMs (7 female, 2 male). One GP was unavailable to participate due to sickness despite having previously agreed, and their colleagues declined to participate, citing excessive workload as reasons (the recruitment of GPs is a commonly cited challenge in the literature on primary care [ 54 ]).…”

Addressing Challenges in Endometriosis Pain Communication Between Patients and Doctors: The Role of Language

“…A limitation of this study is the relatively small number of GPs (n11) who took part. However, given the well-established challenge of recruiting GPs to qualitative research due to their professional time constraints ( 21 ), insights gained from the views of such a group are valuable given their paucity. To our knowledge, this is the first UK-based qualitative study to focus on both patients' and doctors' views on endometriosis pain communication, in particular.…”

Practising in a pandemic: A real time study of primary care practitioners' experience of working through the first year of COVID-19

“…Collaborating with a clinician meant that we were able to benefit from in-depth policy knowledge and support with recruitment through access to networks of the general practice workforce (as also noted by Chew-Graham et al, 2002 and Patel et al, 2017 ). The involvement of a general practitioner within the research team assisted the process of analysis and interpretation as they were able to provide a sense check of initial interpretations as someone with clinical experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…Furthermore, the participant notes an altruistic motivation by contributing to a project that has recorded the experiences of the general practice workforce during a historic time. Such reflections highlight that the general practice workforce may have a range of motivations informing the decision to become involved in a research project (as explored by Gunn et al, 2008 ; Brodaty et al, 2013 and Patel et al, 2017 ). Thinking about these motivations may inform different approaches to encourage participation in research projects—something particularly useful when a project needs to be established in a limited amount of time.…”