Differential Attainment (DA) Research: cross speciality programmatic approach with focus on early interventions and support to improve outcomes.

The overall methodology for the 4 arms of the study will be mixed-methods to obtain both breadth and depth of understanding from relevant stakeholders. The general approach to data collation will be:
i. online semi-structured questionnaires that will be analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis, and;
ii. purposive semi-structured interviews that will be analysed using Framework Analysis. The number of interviews for each arm of the study with sampling of trainees as participants, will be limited to 20 participants since no new themes are likely to be identified with greater numbers of participants.

Specifically, for arms 2 and 3, long term impact will require the choice of appropriate measures of impact. The choice will require collaborative consultation with HEE NW and the GMC to both identify and obtain permissions. The collection of impact measures is likely to include:
(a) perceptions of impact on trainees using online semi-structured questionnaires;
(b) key performance data pre- and post-interventions (including outcomes from ARCP and professional examinations, career progression and GMC National Training Survey overall satisfaction scores as per the GMC metrics at programme level).

The main proposed conference dissemination of outputs will be the annual Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) Scientific Meeting ( 2023 and 2024) and Developing Excellence in Medical Education Conference (DEMEC) in 2023. This choice is related to the budget constraints of the project. The main proposed highly cited peer-reviewed journal dissemination of outputs will be to journals with no article processing charges because of budget constraints. However, we intend to widely disseminate outputs on a timely basis through the use of social media, especially Twitter, and to take all opportunities available that are at minimal cost, such as local or regional workshops and seminars.

This project follows on from a previously funded HEE projects on differential attainment (DA). The projects are aimed at trying to identifying cause of DA in qualified doctors, specifically focusing on what interventions maybe effective in managing support for the trainee doctors, with the primary aim of ensuring as many doctors are able to make the NHS workforce, thereby growing the medical workforce and that the doctors have opportunity to achieve their full potential.