Hoff Timothy, Scott Sarah
Timothy Hoff, PhD, is a Professor of Management, Healthcare Systems, and Health Policy, D'Amore-McKim School of Business, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts. E-mail:
Health Care Manage Rev. 2016 Jul-Sep;41(3):189-99. doi: 10.1097/HMR.0000000000000069.
U.S. medicine is increasingly a gender-balanced profession with half of all medical school graduates now female. Despite this reality and the potentially transformative nature of a large female physician cohort in U.S. health care, there is less examination of their workplace realities and the key talent management strategies for health care organizations employing women physicians.
First, we identify current knowledge about U.S. women physician satisfaction, role challenges, and work tradeoffs. Gender theory is used to help interpret these workplace realities. Second, we use this information to identify talent management strategies health care organizations might consider to mitigate the realities and provide greater support for women physicians.
To facilitate our analysis, we conducted a narrative review of published research that includes analysis focused on U.S. women physicians for the time period 2006-2014. Applying ideas from gender theory, we extrapolated key findings from that research related to three issues: satisfaction, role challenges, and tradeoffs. Then we synthesized the findings to identify general talent management strategies that could address these dynamics proactively while enhancing recruitment and retention with respect to women physicians.
U.S. women physicians express strong levels of satisfaction, particularly with their careers, at the same time they continue to experience gender-based inequities, role challenges, and lack of work-life balance in their chosen specialty fields. Lack of suitable role models and appropriate mentoring for women physicians, in addition to barriers to career advancement, are also prevalent across different medical specialties.
Similar to other occupations and industries, gender-based inequities and role strains are very real issues for women physicians. Health care organizations must acknowledge these issues and employ effective talent management strategies aimed at women doctors if they are to be viewed as an employer of choice by this increasingly important occupational cohort.
美国医学领域的性别平衡日益凸显，如今医学院毕业生中有一半是女性。尽管存在这一现实情况，且大量女医生群体在美国医疗保健领域可能具有变革性，但对于她们的工作实际情况以及雇佣女医生的医疗保健机构的关键人才管理策略，却鲜有审视。
首先，我们确定关于美国女医生满意度、角色挑战和工作权衡的现有知识。运用性别理论来帮助解读这些工作实际情况。其次，我们利用这些信息确定医疗保健机构可能会考虑的人才管理策略，以缓解这些实际情况，并为女医生提供更多支持。
为便于分析，我们对2006年至2014年期间发表的、聚焦于美国女医生的研究进行了叙述性综述。运用性别理论的观点，我们从该研究中推断出与三个问题相关的关键发现：满意度、角色挑战和权衡。然后我们综合这些发现，确定可以积极应对这些动态情况、同时加强女医生招聘和留用的一般人才管理策略。
美国女医生表达了较高程度的满意度，尤其是对她们的职业，但与此同时，她们在所选专业领域仍继续经历基于性别的不平等、角色挑战以及工作与生活失衡的问题。女医生缺乏合适的榜样和适当的指导，职业发展障碍在不同医学专业中也普遍存在。
与其他职业和行业类似，基于性别的不平等和角色压力对女医生来说是非常现实的问题。医疗保健机构必须认识到这些问题，并针对女医生采用有效的人才管理策略，这样才能被这个日益重要的职业群体视为首选雇主。
