Dokument: Leaving the profession as a medical assistant: a qualitative study exploring the process, reasons and potential preventive measures

Titel:Leaving the profession as a medical assistant: a qualitative study exploring the process, reasons and potential preventive measures
URL für Lesezeichen:https://docserv.uni-duesseldorf.de/servlets/DocumentServlet?id=67895
URN (NBN):urn:nbn:de:hbz:061-20241205-120039-3
Kollektion:Publikationen
Sprache:Englisch
Dokumententyp:Wissenschaftliche Texte » Artikel, Aufsatz
Medientyp:Text
Autoren: Mambrey, Viola [Autor]
Dreher, Annegret [Autor]
Loerbroks, Adrian [Autor]
Dateien:
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Dateien vom 05.12.2024 / geändert 05.12.2024
Stichwörter:Health personnel, Qualitative study, Career exit, Germany, Turnover, Leaving the profession, Medical assistant
Beschreibung:Background

Worldwide growing shortages among health care staff are observed. This also holds true for medical assistants in Germany. Medical assistants mainly work in outpatient care and are the first point of contact for patients while performing clinical and administrative tasks. We sought to explore profession turnover among medical assistants, that is, in terms of the underlying decision-making process, the reasons for leaving the medical assistant profession and potential retention measures from the perspective of former medical assistants.
Methods

For this qualitative study, we conducted semi-structured telephone interviews with 20 former medical assistants between August and November 2023. Eligible for participation were medical assistants who (i) were of legal age, (ii) completed medical assistant vocational training and ii) were formerly employed as a medical assistant, but currently employed in another profession. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and content-analyzed.
Results

Former medical assistants expressed various, often interrelated reasons for leaving the profession. These were changes in priorities throughout their career (e.g., in terms of working hours and salary), a constant high workload, barriers to further training, poor career prospects, and poor interpersonal relationships particularly with supervisors, but also within the team and with patients as well as the perception of insufficient recognition by politics and society. Suggestions of former medical assistants to motivate medical assistants to stay in their profession included amongst others higher salaries, more flexible work structures, improved career prospects, and more recognition from supervisors, patients, and society.
Conclusion

Our study provides insights into the complex decision-making process underlying ultimate medical assistant profession turnover. In light of an already existing shortage of medical assistants, we suggest to further explore how the suggested interventions that aim at retention of working medical assistants can be implemented.
Rechtliche Vermerke:Originalveröffentlichung:
Mambrey, V., Dreher, A., & Loerbroks, A. (2024). Leaving the profession as a medical assistant: a qualitative study exploring the process, reasons and potential preventive measures. BMC Health Services Research, 24, Article 1111. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-11607-7
Lizenz:Creative Commons Lizenzvertrag
Dieses Werk ist lizenziert unter einer Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 International Lizenz
Fachbereich / Einrichtung:Medizinische Fakultät
Dokument erstellt am:05.12.2024
Dateien geändert am:05.12.2024
english
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