• Annals of surgery · Aug 2024

    The Impact of Low Workplace Support During Pregnancy on Surgeon Distress and Career Dissatisfaction.

    • Thinzar M Lwin, Manuel Castillo-Angeles, Carrie E Cunningham, Rachel B Atkinson, Eugene Kim, Sarah Rae Easter, Ankush Gosain, Yue-Yung Hu, and Erika L Rangel.
    • Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, City of Hope, Duarte, CA.
    • Ann. Surg. 2024 Aug 7.

    ObjectiveTo describe the impact of lack of workplace support (LOWS) for obstetric health on surgeon distress and career satisfaction.BackgroundAlthough most pregnant surgeons desire clinical duty reductions to mitigate obstetric risk, few modify their schedules due to low workplace support.MethodsUS surgeons with at least one live birth completed an electronic survey. LOWS during pregnancy was defined as (1) disagreeing that colleagues/leadership were supportive of obstetric-mandated bedrest; (2) feeling unable to reduce clinical duties despite health concerns due to risk of financial penalties, requirement to make up missed call shifts, being perceived as "weak", burdening colleagues, or accommodations being denied by the workplace. Multivariate logistic regression determined the association between LOWS and burnout, low quality of life, plans to leave clinical practice or to reduce work hours, and likelihood of recommending a surgical career to one's child.ResultsOf 557 surgeons, the 360 (64.6%) who reported LOWS during pregnancy were more likely to report burnout (OR:2.57; 95%CI:1.60-4.13), low quality of life (OR:1.57; 95%CI:1.02-2.41), a desire to leave their practice (OR:2.74; 95%CI: 1.36-5.49), plans to reduce clinical hours in the next year (OR:4.25; 95%CI:1.82-9.90), and were less likely to recommend their career to their child (OR:0.44; 95%CI:0.28-0.70).ConclusionsLOWS for maternal-fetal health concerns is associated with burnout, low quality of life, and career dissatisfaction. The work environment is a modifiable factor requiring system-level interventions to limit clinical work during pregnancy and provide fair compensation for covering surgeons. Supporting surgeons during pregnancy is a short-term investment with long-term implications for improving longevity and diversity of the workforce.Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…