Towards an understanding of how appraisal of doctors produces its effects: a realist review.

CONTEXT: Revalidation was launched in the UK to provide assurances to the public that doctors are up to date and fit to practice. Appraisal is a fundamental component of revalidation. Approximately 150 000 doctors are appraised annually, costing an estimated £97 million over 10 years. There is little understanding of the theory of how and why appraisal is supposed to produce its effects. A realist review of the literature was utilised to explore these issues, as they generate context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) configurations, resulting in the creation of theories of how and why appraisal of doctors produces its effects.

METHODS: A programme theory of appraisal was created by convening stakeholders in appraisal and searching a database of research on appraisal of doctors. Supplementary searches provided literature on theories identified in the programme theory. Relevant sections of texts relating to the programme theory were extracted from included articles, coded in NVivo and synthesised using realist logic of analysis. A classification tool categorised the included articles' contributions to programme theory.

RESULTS: One hundred and twenty-five articles were included. Three mechanisms were identified: dissonance, denial and self-affirmation. The dissonance mechanism is most likely to cause outcomes of reflection and insight. Important contexts for the dissonance mechanism include the appraiser being highly skilled, the appraisee's working environment being supportive and the appraisee having the right attitude. The denial mechanism is more likely to be enacted if the opposite of these contexts occurs and could lead to game-playing behaviour. A skilled appraiser was also important in triggering the self-affirmation mechanism, resulting in reflection and insight. The contexts, mechanisms and outcomes identified were, however, limited by a lack of evidence that could enable further refining of the CMO configurations.

CONCLUSION: This review makes a significant contribution to our understanding of appraisal by identifying different ways that appraisal of doctors produces its effects. Further research will focus on testing the CMO configurations.