Work week duration, work-family balance and difficulties encountered by female and male physicians: Results from the French SESMAT study

Abstract

Objective: France encounters difficulties attracting physicians to work in hospitals. Organisation at work and at home may be at the heart of the problem for female as well as for male physicians. Participants: A comprehensive questionnaire was filled out online by a representative sample of 1924 French hospital physicians. Methods: We conducted gender bivariate and multivariate analysis of the risk factors for burnout and intent to leave the profession(ITL). Results: ITL was declared by 17.4% of physicians. According to 41.3% of female physicians (FP), their profession was an obstacle to having children (versus 19.3% for male physicians (MP)). Major factors linked with burnout were Effort/Reward imbalance (FP adjOR = 5.09, MP adjOR = 5.93), Work-family conflicts (FP adjOR = 2.97, MP adjOR = 3.04), and Low quality of teamwork (FP adjOR = 1.82, MP adjOR = 2.68). Major factors linked with ITL were Low quality of teamwork (FP adjOR = 4.49, MP adjOR = 3.03), Patient-related burnout (FP adjOR = 2.10, MP adjOR = 2.35) and General burnout (FP adjOR = 1.85, MP adjOR = 1.45). Conclusions: Excessive job demands are linked with burnout and with work-family conflicts, conducting to difficulties in organising one's life in order to have and raise children. Potential solutions include facilitating teamwork in order to reduce departure, which increase workload on those who stay increasing their work family conflict.

Motherhood and medicine: systematic review of the experiences of mothers who are doctors

“…The first theme, derived from one qualitative study (20 participants) 10 and ten quantitative cross-sectional surveys (183 to 6880 participants), 8,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] was the influence of a medical career on decisions and priorities related to motherhood, including decisions about whether to have children, and when and how many, as well as the ongoing effect of a medical career on a woman's family (Supporting Information, table 2).…”

“…Five studies reported that women who were doctors described decisions about having children or pursuing career progression as difficult. 10,12,13,16,18 Most participating women reported prioritising their careers, including completion of specialty training, by choosing to delay having children. 10,13,16,18 In one study, 12 513 of 801 respondents (64%) deferred having children for career reasons.…”

La conciliation travail-famille : le défi des mères médecins

“…D'un côté, la population et les politiciens demandent aux médecins d'en faire plus, et de l'autre, les médecins trouvent qu'ils en font trop et se sentent épuisés. « La perception qu'a la société des médecins, soit le fait qu'ils sont des privilégiés, hautement éduqués, bien rémunérés pour un travail qui est reconnu et valorisé n'est pas conforme à la réalité » [15], et leurs difficultés sont bien documentées dans la littérature [16][17][18]. La perception sociale que les médecins ne prennent pas leurs responsabilités serait en fait fausse, c'est plutôt qu'ils sont incapables de répondre à la demande en raison d'un épuisement.…”

El futuro de la feminización de la medicina en Argentina

“…En los últimos 30 años, la proporción de mujeres que estudian medicina ha crecido de forma constante en numerosos países, incluido Estados Unidos [1], Canadá [2,3], Reino Unido [4], Francia [5], Japón [6], Israel [7] y Australia [8]. En Argentina también se evidencia un proceso de feminización de la profesión médica que comienza en la universidad y se extiende al ámbito del ejercicio profesional [9].…”