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Are There Too Many Women Doctors?

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Nadim Kanafani, M.D. Apr 24, 2008 8:11 PM GMT This is a great joke! It's a little late for April fool's, but it's still funny! I'm sure the headline meant to say something to the effect that there aren't ENOUGH women doctors?! Great for a good laugh though. Thanks for the comic relief Business Week.Nadim Kanafani, M.D.St. Louis, MOUSA
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anon Apr 24, 2008 6:30 PM GMT Unbelievable! Trust the British establishment to try to undermine years of progress for women in science and medicine. Too many women! I wonder if the long hours the male Dr's in the UK work include the 5 hours on the golf course every Tuesday afternoon, or is that "work"Whereas if women need to leave at 4pm to pick up the children then they are slacking.If childcare and after school programs in the UK were in place, similar to the US (and yes we have to pay for them) then women would not have to work part-time, and often two part-time women work longer than one male, for less money.I myself took 5 weeks off on maternity, and had to use vacation time!
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PhD faculty Apr 24, 2008 5:13 PM GMT As a female MedSchool faculty member, I often hear from women MD students that they intend to work part time. From my perspective, women chose primary care residencies with the idea that these specialties will be more amenable to working flexible hours. It seems clear that when you combine a fixed number of Med School positions with an increased number of grads looking to work part time, you will end up with a physician shortage. It also seems clear that the current shortage does result from the steep increase in female admissions to Med School over the past 20 years. However, if the med school admissions stay at 50% female and one assumes that the same proportion of grads chose to work part time, then this "shortage" should be alleviated by an appropriate increase in the number of medschool slots. Nevertheless, rebalancing the physician shortage will not address the "on-call" issues. This situation will continue to get worse and there is a real need for academic centers, private hospitals and private practice groups to create solutions for this problem. Otherwise, we should all plan on staying healthy nights, weekends and holidays.
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massdoc Apr 24, 2008 3:11 PM GMT A point of the shortage:Dr. Oriol was trained as an anesthesiologist and is now, I would assume, not practicing.It is difficult to expand the medical workforce, so each practitioner should be working his/her share of hours. Spending seven to eleven years to train someone for a job, and then have them only work parttime, seems ridiculous.
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anonymous Apr 24, 2008 1:53 PM GMT It is interesting that the statistics did not talk about female physicians who work full time similar to their male couterparts. I am a full time female physician who works long hours just like my male colleagues. I took only eight weeks for maternity leave twice during my career. I never entertained working part-time for economic and financial issues. But I always had to live with the guilt of not having enough time with my family and spending too much money for hiring nannies. Perhaps Dr. Nancy Oriol comments has to be taken wholeheartedly that there might be some issues with retention. We should consider alternative ways of making the discipline accomodating for the younger generation who have to juggle work and life balance.
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Al Apr 24, 2008 1:31 PM GMT I need to point out that women go into specialties like Family Practice at a much higher rate than men. It is primary care that needs more doctors, not surgery. Women in primary care also spend more time with each patient. Now who is going to complain that they spend too much time with their doctor? Perhaps we should be recruiting more female physicians, not fewer.
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Ankur Apr 24, 2008 10:39 AM GMT This is the most stupid line of reasoning ever appeared in Business Week. This line is so silly that I can't even begin to refute it. (I am a guy, in case it matters to someone reading this.)
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Marcia Ontell Apr 24, 2008 1:07 AM GMT Long ago,I remember a female med student telling me that she answered this sexist question at her interview by explaining that her eight week maternity leave would be compensated for by the fact that women lived longer than men.
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Micelle Haydel Apr 24, 2008 1:03 AM GMT Hmm-- I wonder how many children complain that their physician-parents are spending too much time at home with them? A physician who can successfully balance their family and career should be commended. I have been a physician for over 10 years and I routinely advise younger physicians to prioritize family first when making career decisions. One of my mentors is a male physician who unabashedly schedules his work commitments around his family commitments. Who came up with the absurd idea that the only way to measure success is to count the hours worked away from home?
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Denise Miller Apr 24, 2008 12:28 AM GMT This is a sexist article. I graduated in the 70's from med school.Joined a university with fellowship training and was offered the whopping salary of 80,000.00 in 1989. Women are still underpaid, what can be done when sexist and old assumptions continue to cloud the facts that medicine in the US is not affordable for many Americans
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