How do we keep women physicians in medicine?

Undoubtedly, my favorite part of my non-clinical work is hearing from fellow physicians about their lives in medicine.  Every once in a while, I receive an email that puts beautifully into words some of my own struggles. A few weeks ago, I received an email from a colleague outlining her personal journey through her career, which she was hoping other physicians would benefit from as well.  I know it spoke to me, and wanted to share it (with permission) after anonymizing some of the details. Hi Nisha, I did my residency and fellowship in (…).  During my residency, I decided to have a baby without realizing how hard it would be to take care of a newborn. My husband is a physician, and I got through it, but I realized then that one of us has to cut down on the work hours. Jobs market was tight after I finished my fellowship with almost no part positions. I decided to take up a telemedicine position as we were also planning to have another baby. I work for a great company, but my dream job is an academic position. When I did this, my professors in my program started to question my decision. They even started suggesting that I do something else. Kids will go … get a good job … one of our relatives said I would lose my skills and needed to look for another job.  One of the medical staff asked, “When are you going to get a real job?” One of my peers said that he was feeling sorry for me. In the meantime, I could sense that my daughter wanted me t...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Physician Hospital-Based Medicine Primary Care Source Type: blogs