From Stigma to Validation: A Qualitative Assessment of a Novel National Program to Improve Retention of Physician-Scientists with Caregiving Responsibilities

Physician Work-Personal Intersection: A Scoping Review of Terms, Definitions, and Measures

PURPOSE

A substantial body of evidence describes the multidimensional relationship between the intersection of physicians' work and personal lives and health care quality and costs, workforce sustainability, and workplace safety culture. However, there is no clear consensus on the terms, definitions, or measures used in physician work-personal intersection (WPI) research. In this scoping review, the authors aimed to describe the terms and definitions used by researchers to describe physician WPI, summarize the measurement tools used, and formulate a conceptual model of WPI that can inform future research.

METHOD

The authors searched PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science for studies that investigated U.S. practicing physicians' WPI and measured WPI as an outcome from January 1990 to March 2022. The authors applied thematic analysis to all WPI terms, definitions, and survey questions or prompts in the included studies to create a conceptual model of physician WPI.

RESULTS

Ultimately, 102 studies were included in the final analysis. The most commonly used WPI terms were work-life balance, work-life integration, and work-home or work-life conflict(s). There was no consistency in the definition of any terms across studies. There was heterogeneity in the way WPI was measured, and only 8 (7.8%) studies used a validated measurement tool. The authors identified 6 key driver domains of WPI: work and personal demands; colleague and institutional support and resources; personal identity, roles, health, and values; work schedule and flexibility; partner and family support; and personal and professional strategies.

CONCLUSIONS

The authors found significant variability in the terms, definitions, and measures used to study physician WPI. They offer a conceptual model of the WPI construct that can be used to more consistently study physician WPI in the future. Future work should further investigate the validity of this model and generate consensus around WPI terms, definitions, and measures.

Work-Family Interface in the Context of Social Responsibility: A Systematic Literature Review

The literature on internal social responsibility, in which the work-family interface can be included, already has a robust tradition in scientific research. It is, therefore, important to systematize the path that has been taken and what the future may hold. This article aims to systematize the literature that simultaneously focuses on the work-family relationship and on the context of social responsibility and sustainability, with the purpose of mapping the research that has been produced on these intersections. A systematic review of the literature was conducted between the period 1968 and 2021. The search was performed on the SCOPUS database, and the analysis was conducted using the VOSviewer software, with 333 articles having been identified and subjected to a bibliometric and content analysis. As a result, 88 articles were analyzed in depth, focusing on the Work and Life Space dimension and the work-family relationship. The results indicate that corporate social responsibility has a positive effect on the work-family relationship, where an efficient balance between personal and professional life is often measured based on the adequacy of the adjustment of factors such as working hours and social and family commitments.

Insights from an Intervention to Support Early Career Faculty with Extraprofessional Caregiving Responsibilities

Background: Insufficient support for balancing career and family responsibilities hinders retention of physician-scientists. Programs to improve retention of this important group of faculty are crucial. Understanding the experiences of program implementers is key to refining and improving program offerings. Methods: We conducted an interpretive, descriptive, and qualitative study as part of an ongoing evaluation of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists (FRCS) awards. We conducted telephone interviews with 12 program directors representing all 10 US medical schools who received the Doris Duke funding in 2016. Results: Of the 12 participants, 10 were women (83.3%). Participating program directors perceived the FRCS award as capable of producing paradigmatic changes regarding how responsibilities at home and work in academic medicine are viewed and integrated by early-career faculty members. The main qualitative themes that captured directors' experiences implementing the program were as follows: (1) championing a new paradigm of support, (2) lessons learned while implementing the new paradigm, (3) results of the new paradigm, and (4) sustaining the paradigm. Conclusions: These findings may help to inform development of similar programs to retain and support the career progress of physician-scientists with extraprofessional caregiving responsibilities. The interviews illuminate ways in which the Doris Duke FRCS award has driven institutional culture change by normalizing discussion and prompted reassessment of extraprofessional challenges and how best to aid early-career faculty members in overcoming these challenges.