What impact does widening participation to medicine have on the medical workforce in the UK: a scoping review.

Purpose: Widening participation in medicine refers to the recruitment policy of encouraging those who are traditionally under-represented in medical school. Whilst research in the UK has investigated the processes around improving participation through recruitment and selection to medical schools, there is less focus around the period after medical school and how students from widening participation backgrounds fare in the workforce.

Methods: This study employed scoping review methodology to collate, map and summarise research in the field. Basic numerical analysis and thematic analysis were performed on the included studies.

Results: A total of 17 studies were included in this scoping review. The majority of included studies were perspective pieces and cohort studies. There was a paucity of studies reporting around the impact of widening participation of doctors with a disability on the workforce. Four themes emerged from the thematic analysis: (1) promoting diversity; (2) boosting recruitment and retention; (3) improving representation and balance; and (4) perpetuating inequalities.

Conclusions: This scoping review highlighted positive effects on the workforce of widening participation. Efforts should be undertaken to ensure widening participation students do not experience ongoing inequality in their subsequent careers on qualification from medical school. The research field would benefit from further study exploring the impact of disability on the medical workforce, and qualitative enquiry to better investigate the experiences of widening participation students in the workforce.