What innovations (including return to practice) would help attract, recruit, or retain NHS clinical staff? A rapid evidence map

National Health Service (NHS) waiting times have significantly increased over the past couple of years, particularly since the emergence of COVID-19. The NHS is currently experiencing an acute workforce shortage, which hampers the ability to deal with increasing waiting times and clearing the backlog resulting from the pandemic. Plans to increase the workforce, by recruiting new staff, retaining the existing NHS clinical workforce, and making return to clinical practice more attractive will require a number of approaches. This Rapid Evidence Map aimed to describe the extent and nature of the available evidence base for innovations (including return to practice) that could help attract, recruit, or retain NHS clinical staff, in order to identify the priorities and actions for a rapid review. Three options were proposed for a subsequent focused Rapid Review and discussed with stakeholders: (1) review of primary studies that have evaluated return to practice schemes; (2) review of reviews of factors that influence retention; (3) review of reviews of interventions for supporting recruitment and retention. A decision was made that option 3 would be useful to inform practice and a rapid review will be undertaken.