Abstract
Double-physician couples being parents have been shown to face greater difficulties in combining their private and professional lives when compared to other couples. In the present study, we aimed to analyze how double-physician couples manage to arrange their roles in their private and professional lives and how compatible their individual idea of being a mother or a father is with their career as a physician. Fifteen couples being parents and consisting of either two surgeons or a surgeon and a nonsurgeon were asked to participate in a survey to determine the average maternity or paternity leave, the reduction of hours worked per week after the birth of a child, and the need for professional childcare and additional support in childcare from relatives or babysitters per week. Furthermore, the couples were asked to mark on a six-item Likert scale how compatible their professional life is with their idea of being parents. The average maternity or paternity leave was 13 ± 2 months per child and the mean reduction of hours worked per week was 30 ± 12%. The couples made use of professional childcare for 41 ± 6 h/week on average and needed additional support in childcare from relatives or babysitters for 5 ± 3 h/week. On the Likert scale from “completely incompatible (0)” to “perfectly compatible (5)”, the mean compatibility of professional and private lives was rated 2.5 ± 1.1. Becoming parents significantly influences the professional and private lives of double-physician couples. The relatively low compatibility of double-physician couples’ private and professional lives might lead to relevant work-home conflicts. Such conflicts have been proven to be associated with surgeons not recommending surgery as a career. Therefore, efforts should be made to improve the compatibility of parenthood and a medical career.
Highlights
Fifteen couples being parents and consisting of either two surgeons or a surgeon and a nonsurgeon were asked to participate in a survey to determine the average maternity or paternity leave, the reduction of hours worked per week after the birth of a child, and the need for professional childcare and additional support in childcare from relatives or babysitters per week
The average maternity or paternity leave was 13 ± 2 months per child and the mean reduction of hours worked per week was 30 ± 12%
If you are a young surgeon and you fall in love with a young doctor or another young surgeon, you will soon get to know the difficulties of synchronizing duty rosters and leave days
Summary
If you are a young surgeon and you fall in love with a young doctor or another young surgeon, you will soon get to know the difficulties of synchronizing duty rosters and leave days. In the authors’ opinion the mentioned difficulties are more or less annoying, the scenario of two physicians becoming parents has the potential to shake the foundations of both partners’ professional and private lives. It has been demonstrated that surgeons whose spouse is a physician have to face greater difficulties in combining their private and professional lives when compared to couples consisting of a physician and a nonphysician [5]. With the “Generation Y” doing the ward rounds and getting scrubbed at the theatre, the term “work-life balance” seems to gain importance among younger surgeons and the parental satisfaction of physicians has been subject to scientific research [7, 8]
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