Part-time working physicians, what does it take?
Year: 2004
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Background: An increasing number of medical specialists prefer to work part-time. This development\ncan be found worldwide. In the Netherlands, about 12% of internists, 8% of surgeons, and 13% of\nradiologists work part-time. For female physicians this is 45%, 33%, and 56% respectively. Since\nthere are more female than male medical students, part-time work will gain more importance in the\nfuture. Problems faced with the realization of part-time work in medicine are the division of night\nand weekend shifts, as well as communication between physicians and continuity of care. It is\nthought that parttime\nworking physicians are less devoted to their work and this might imply that more tasks are done by\nfull-time working physicians. Furthermore, when working with part-time physicians meetings should\nbe planned at times that they can attend; the organization should be more formalized. Aim: To\ndetermine whether part-time working specialist devote less time\nto patient care in proportion to other tasks, and to study whether full-time working physicians do\nproportionally more night and weekend shifts. Furthermore, we studied the reasons physicians report\nfor having a part-time or a full-time job, and whether there are differences between specialties,\nand between partnerships. Methods: A questionnaire was sent by mail to all internists (N=817),\nsurgeons (N=693) and radiologist (N=585) working in general hospitals in the Netherlands. Questions\nwere asked about the actual situation, like hours worked and night and weekend shifts, their motives\nfor working full or part-time, and their ideas about part-time working. Data were analysed with\nmulti-level analysis to take into account\nthe clustering of physicians within partnerships. Results: Preliminary results show that surgeons\nworking part-time spend less\ntime than average to direct patient care. More than average time is spent on communication with\ncolleagues and correspondence about patients. Part-time working surgeons have proportionally less\nnight and weekend shifts.\nFull-time working surgeons report efficiency and continuity of care as important reasons for working\nfull-time. Part-time working surgeons (women and older men) report time spent with family and time\nfor sports, relaxation and hobbies as important for their choice. It is now examined whether the\nsame goes for internists and radiologists. Conclusions: It seems that part-time working goes with\nmore communication, and therefore less time spent on patient care. Since it can be expected that in\nthe future more physicians prefer to work part-time, solutions have to be found for the loss of time\nspent on patient care. The arrangements of night and weekend shifts also deserve attention, this is\nrelated to continuity of care.
Language: English
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1499486557