Leung Tiffany I, Wang Karen H, Lin Tammy L, Gin Geneen T, Pendharkar Sima S, Chen Chwen-Yuen Angie
Care and Public Health Research Institute, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Department of Internal Medicine (adjunct), Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, United States.
JMIR Res Protoc. 2022 Jun 2;11(6):e38126. doi: 10.2196/38126.
Women physicians face unique obstacles while progressing through their careers, navigating career advancement and seeking balance between professional and personal responsibilities. Systemic changes, along with individual and institutional changes, are needed to overcome obstacles perpetuating physician gender inequities. Developing a deeper understanding of women physicians' experiences during important transition points could reveal both barriers and opportunities for recruitment, retention, and promotion, and inform best practices developed based on these experiences.
The aim is to learn from the experiences and perspectives of women physicians as they transition from early to mid-career, then develop best practices that can serve to support women physicians as they advance through their careers.
Semistructured interviews were conducted with women physicians in the United States in 2020 and 2021. Eligibility criteria included self-identification as a woman who is in the process of transitioning or who recently transitioned from early to mid-career stage. Purposeful sampling facilitated identification of participants who represented diversity in career pathway, practice setting, specialty, and race/ethnicity. Each participant was offered compensation for their participation. Interviews were audio-recorded and professionally transcribed. Interview questions were open-ended, exploring participants' perceptions of this transition. Qualitative thematic analysis will be performed. We will use an open coding and grounded theory approach on interview transcripts.
The Ethics Review Committee of the Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Life Sciences at Maastricht University approved the study; Stanford University expedited review approved the study; and the University of California, San Diego certified the study as exempt from review. Twelve in-depth interviews of 50-100 minutes in duration were completed. Preliminary analyses indicate one key theme is a tension resulting from finite time divided between demands from a physician career and demands from family needs. In turn, this results in constant boundary control between these life domains that are inextricable and seemingly competing against each other within a finite space; family needs impinge on planned career goals, if the boundary between them is not carefully managed. To remedy this, women sought resources to help them redistribute home responsibilities, freeing themselves to have more time, especially for children. Women similarly sought resources to help with career advancement, although not with regard to time directly, but to first address foundational knowledge gaps about career milestones and how to achieve them.
Preliminary results provide initial insights about how women identify or activate a career shift and how they marshaled resources and support to navigate barriers they faced. Further analyses are continuing as of March 2022 and are expected to be completed by June 2022. The dissemination plan includes peer-reviewed open-access journal publication of the results and presentation at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association's Women Physicians Section.
女医生在职业生涯发展过程中面临着独特的障碍，她们要应对职业晋升，并在专业责任和个人责任之间寻求平衡。需要进行系统性变革，以及个人和机构层面的变革，以克服使医生性别不平等长期存在的障碍。更深入地了解女医生在重要转型期的经历，可能会揭示招聘、留用和晋升方面的障碍与机遇，并为基于这些经历制定的最佳实践提供参考。
旨在了解女医生从职业生涯早期过渡到中期的经历和观点，然后制定最佳实践，以支持女医生在职业生涯中不断前进。
2020年和2021年对美国的女医生进行了半结构化访谈。入选标准包括自我认定为正在过渡或最近从职业生涯早期过渡到中期的女性。目的抽样有助于识别在职业路径、执业环境、专业和种族/民族方面具有多样性的参与者。为每位参与者的参与提供了报酬。访谈进行了录音并专业转录。访谈问题是开放式的，探讨参与者对这一过渡的看法。将进行定性主题分析。我们将对访谈记录采用开放编码和扎根理论方法。
马斯特里赫特大学健康、医学和生命科学学院的伦理审查委员会批准了该研究；斯坦福大学的快速审查批准了该研究；加利福尼亚大学圣地亚哥分校认证该研究可免于审查。完成了12次时长为50至100分钟的深度访谈。初步分析表明，一个关键主题是由于医生职业需求和家庭需求之间有限的时间分配所导致的紧张关系。反过来，这导致了这些生活领域之间持续的边界控制，这些领域在有限的空间内相互交织且看似相互竞争；如果不仔细管理它们之间的边界，家庭需求就会影响计划好的职业目标。为了补救这一点，女性寻求资源来帮助她们重新分配家庭责任，使自己有更多时间，尤其是陪伴孩子的时间。女性同样寻求资源来帮助职业发展，虽然不是直接关于时间，而是首先解决关于职业里程碑以及如何实现这些里程碑的基础知识差距。
初步结果提供了关于女性如何识别或启动职业转变，以及她们如何调配资源和支持来应对所面临障碍的初步见解。截至2022年3月，进一步的分析仍在继续，预计将于2022年6月完成。传播计划包括在同行评审的开放获取期刊上发表研究结果，并在美国医学协会女医生分会年会上进行展示。
