- I am female
- I am married
- I am in medical school
- I want to have a family
The combination of those facts can be.. shall we say.. difficult at times. In fact, I am part of a group at school called AMWA (American Medical Women's Association). This group addresses how women are still reportedly underpaid, hold less academic positions, and are still a large minority of many specialties. The other major topic of our AMWA meetings is balancing a family with work. Or even more specially, when to have babies. Truth is, the intense training years for medical school are also the best years for baby making.
An article was published in the New York Times last year that stirred up a lot of drama (read it here).
A female anesthesiologist and mother of four wrote, "Today [...] increasing numbers of doctors — mostly women — decide to work part time or leave the profession." True.
"...nearly 4 in 10 female doctors between the ages of 35 and 44 reporting in 2010 that they worked part time." True again.
"They must understand that medical education is a privilege, not an entitlement, and it confers a real moral obligation to serve." "If you want to be a doctor, be a doctor." I agree. Medicine is something you should feel called to do, it is definitely not something to do for the money.
“Some jobs are too important to multitask. Medicine is one of them. My patients can count on the fact that when I am at work, my full attention is with them, and the rest of the time — well, I do my best, and luckily I never set my sights on the award for ‘Mother of the Year.’ ” Hmmmm...
"I have great respect for stay-at-home parents, and I think it’s fine if journalists or chefs or lawyers choose to work part time or quit their jobs altogether. But it’s different for doctors. Someone needs to take care of the patients." What?!
Her argument is partly built on the fact that the $13,490.00 we pay each semester as a medical student at my school is only a small chunk of what it costs the school to educate each of us. Also, as a country, we only have a select number of spots to train physicians (aka more people want to be doctors than are given the chance). Physician shortage is a problem that exists and is predicted to get worse in the next few years. So many people are also wondering how we will address that problem.
But am I insane to disagree with her? I am not convinced that I am benefiting society by neglecting my family for my patients. I am also not convinced that daycare can raise my children better than I can. Maybe I am full of it? But I felt like I had fantastic experiences/education because my mom stayed home and gave me the personalized attention I needed to grow. (Thanks mom!) I understand that not many people are in the position where they are able to stay home full-time or even part-time.
I think this physician overlooked how important it is to spend time with your family. I think she also neglected to address that there is a serious problem of "burn-out" among physicians. Physicians are also at high risk for depression, suicide, and early deaths. Maybe the system of working until you can't possibly work anymore isn't sustainable? There are some people that agree (here) and (here).
Anyway, there are some thoughts I have been pondering. Am I naive thinking families can survive on one salary in this country? Or that my plan for kids is crazy? (I do realize that I didn't share my plan with you.. tehehe.. I'm a secret keeper!) I would love to hear your opinions/advice. I would love to know how people outside of medicine feel. Sorry for no pictures or updates on life.. maybe next week!
I see both sides of this issue. Adam had lots of female classmates who were all pro "full time female docs" at the beginning of med school. But by graduation, many (most even?) had changed their tunes. Many of the girls married during med school and realized how much they wanted to have children. And so it is that they (now) work part time to manage a balance between family and work life. My only issue with the whole thing is that with the limited spots available in the US for med schooling, we simply need more medical schools to train more docs. As a nation we DESPERATELY NEED doctors to work full time in order to keep our health system afloat. There is a reason that many of our US docs come from overseas, having completed med school elsewhere. So my beef isn't with the issue of working part time as a physician--in my opinion, THAT is the life! The issue is a supply/demand issue that is sort of (no, a lot) government regulated. We need to open quite a few more med schools and make it cost effective (tuition-wise) in order to do so. Which also could take me off on a tangent on health care costs (actual vs. what is charged and all the many middle men in health care) and my worry of what will happen to our health system as a whole over the next 20 years!:) I love your blog. So glad you're documenting this journey. It will always be a memorable one! Love ya!
ReplyDeleteMelissa: Thank you for your insight! I think you are completely right- our system does desperately need doctors to work full-time and we spend way too much money on health administration compared to actual care. And thanks for loving our blog! We hope that it will be a good journal of these crazy/fun years. Hope you are doing well! Love you!
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