Gender and Parenting Significantly Affect Work Hours of Recent Dermatology Program Graduates

Abstract

Background: The increased proportion of female physicians over the last 30 years may have important implications for future physician workforce needs. Objective: To assess the roles of gender, marital status, and parenting in employment choices. Design, Setting, and Participants: Anonymous surveys were distributed to recent dermatology residency graduates taking a board examination review course from 1999 through 2002. Main Outcome Measures: The number of hours respondents saw patients per week and the number of hours they spent in each field of dermatology per week. Results: There were 191 respondents to the survey in 2002, which represented 54% of the 2002 residency graduates. For clarity, this article focuses on the 2002 results except where trends over time become apparent. Of the (REPRINTED) ARCH DERMATOL / VOL 140, FEB 2004 WWW.ARCHDERMATOL.COM 191

National Appraisal of Dermatology Residency Training

“…A recent study has demonstrated that parenting issues may affect the workforce choices of women in dermatology. 23 Women now make up the majority in dermatology residency training programs, 23 and at the time of the present study, 65% of dermatology residents in Canada were women (n=31). The challenge of recruiting and retaining women in academic dermatology remains, and concerted effort is needed to provide role models and mentors and to develop formal support mechanisms such as modified tenure tracks for academic advancement of women in our specialty.…”

From calling to a scheduled vocation: Swedish male and female students’ reflections on being a doctor

“…It was recently demonstrated that parenting, not gender, had most impact on workforce involvement among young physicians (Jacobson et al 2004). Wendel found that reasons for not choosing surgery were the same for both men and women: residency lifestyle, practice lifestyle and length of training (Wendel et al 2003).…”

Generational Differences in Practice Patterns of Dermatologists in the United States

“…[26][27][28][29] However, in studies in which women's productivity is lower than men's, the difference has been attributed to women spending more time with each patient [30][31][32] or increased complexity of visit content. 4 Additional research is needed to better address questions relating to the interaction of physician sex with length of career, [33][34][35][36] career interruptions, 36,37 hours spent performing other forms of work (eg, domestic activities), 36,38 parenting status, 30,33,[37][38][39] and other measures of productivity. 4,25 Another influence on physician productivity was the type of practice.…”

“…4,5,7,9,27,39 It is possible that the subset of surveyed dermatologists who responded to the survey is not representative of the total population of dermatologists. A notable discrepancy between total work hours and the sum of subspecialty hours in medical, surgical, and cosmetic areas occurred because some respondents reported fewer total work hours than the sum of their subspecialty hours worked per week.…”