Relation between a career and family life for English hospital consultants: qualitative, semistructured interview study
Editorial - Changing society: changing role of doctors
Many hospital consultants are dissatisfied with the balance between their career and family life. The working practices and attitudes within hospital culture are an important factor influencing this dissatisfaction, according to a study in this week's BMJ.
Dumelow and colleagues interviewed 202 NHS hospital consultants aged between 40-50 years, representing all hospital medical specialities. The interviews included questions on work and domestic life, medical training and achievement. Curricula vitae were also used to collect information on work history. Almost a fifth of female consultants felt their personal life had been restricted to benefit their medical career. Two had made a conscious choice at an early stage in their career to forgo having children. Others wanted to have children but felt that constraints of hospital working practices and pressure to follow a full time career had been influential in shaping the balance between their work and family life. One commented "… I'm aware I gave too much to medicine and lost out as a result."
Two thirds of men and just over half of women had segregated their professional and personal lives in order to combine a very demanding career and a family. Many of these men were dissatisfied with the balance between career and family life, which was largely due to the perceived lack of choice to spend time with family because of working practices and pressure to conform to these practices if they were to have a successful career. Even those who felt they had an accommodating relation between work and family had made career sacrifices. A third of women had worked part time or taken a career break and 10 per cent of men had restricted work commitments or limited their career goals to benefit their personal life.
The authors conclude that consultants are currently fitting in with the profession rather than the profession adapting to enable doctors to have fulfilling professional and personal lives. They suggest that government policies aimed at increasing the medical workforce and promoting family friendly working practices in the NHS should take into account the need for a fundamental change in hospital culture.
Contact:
C Dumelow, Health Care Evaluation Unit, Department of Public Health Sciences, St George's Hospital Medical School, London SW17 0RE Email: carol@cdumelow.freeserve.co.uk