Disproportionate Negative Career Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Female Pediatric Cardiologists in the Northeast United States

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on practicing physicians, with effects in clinical practice, academic pursuits, research endeavors, and personal lives. Women in medicine have been uniquely impacted. We examined the impact of the pandemic on the careers of pediatric cardiologists in the Northeast with an anonymous online survey. Participants reported demographic data, information on work hours, administrative burden, career satisfaction, academic productivity, and burnout. We approached 490 cardiologists and received 127 completed surveys (response rate 26%; 49% female). Among all respondents, 72% reported increased burnout, 43% reported decreased career satisfaction, and 57% reported decreased academic productivity. In multivariable ordinal regression analysis, when compared to male physicians, females were 2.4 times more likely to report decreased overall career satisfaction ( p = 0.027), 2.6 times more likely to report decreased academic productivity ( p = 0.028), and 2.6 times more likely to report increased feelings of burnout “to a large degree” ( p = 0.022). Among all respondents, decreased career satisfaction was independently associated with increased household responsibility (OR = 4.4, p = 0.001). Increased administrative burden was independently associated with decreased academic productivity (OR = 2.6, p = 0.038). Open-ended responses highlighted loss of community due to remote work and blurring of the boundaries between work and home. Conversely, respondents appreciated flexibility to work remotely. In conclusion, the majority of pediatric cardiologists in the Northeast experienced negative career impacts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Important gender differences emerged, with female physicians disproportionately reporting increased burnout, decreased career satisfaction, and decreased academic productivity. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00246-022-02934-9.

Scholarly Productivity of US Medical Schools Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…For physician faculty, the combination of research restrictions with increased clinical workload may have especially hindered participation in research and scholarly activity, regardless of the topic. Although recent survey studies have found that physician faculty self-reported decreases in academic productivity, 28,29 our study found that among US medical schools, most of the institutions were able to sustain growth in the number of publications from 2019 through 2021. Furthermore, we identified structural factors related to research capacity, faculty diversity, and the impact of the pandemic that may have contributed to differing trends in scholarly productivity among medical schools during this time.…”

Leadership Inequity, Burnout, and Lower Engagement of Women in Medicine

“…Dr. Smith’s pregnancy was unremarkable with the exception of significant additional fatigue. The COVID-19 pandemic further aggravated her overall health and sense of well-being (Laraja et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Burnout, first described in 1974 and expanded over time, explains a multidimensional stress syndrome consisting of mental fatigue (emotional exhaustion), negative perceptions and feelings about clients or patients (depersonalization), and reduced perceptions of professional competence (Maslach & Jackson, 1981 ). While all professional healthcare staff can be vulnerable to burnout, these concerns were aggravated during the COVID-19 pandemic and reinforced that women in medicine face unique additional professional challenges (Laraja et al, 2022 ). More recently, engagement has been appreciated as a critical component of staff retention, financial success, patient safety, patient quality, and career satisfaction.…”

Group peer mentoring to improve faculty connections and enhance mentoring networks

“…These challenges have contributed to increased levels of burnout and decreased levels of career satisfaction among academic physicians. [2][3][4][5] Even as restrictions on in-person meetings were lifted by institutions, many faculty preferred meetings to remain virtual and hence the erosion of faculty relationships created by the pandemic has the potential to continue if left unaddressed.…”