In a profession full of flux and uncertainty, America’s physicians say they are generally not a happy lot. But female physicians do seem to be a bit less miserable overall, according to a recent study by The Physicians Foundation.
A survey of 13,750 physicians by Merritt Hawkins on behalf of The Physicians Foundation suggests there are some differences in attitudes and opinions between male and female physicians about their careers, the profession and the future of healthcare – but on a number of key points, both genders are really pessimistic or unhappy. The study also confirms the trend of women being more heavily represented in primary care roles, while their male counterparts are more heavily represented in specialty healthcare areas. This may have some impact on reported morale levels.
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Consider some highlights of the research:
- Only 36 percent of female physicians rated their morale as positive, but that was still better than the poor showing of 31 percent among male physicians.
- A slightly more respectable 43 percent of female physicians said they are positive about the medical profession overall, compared to 34 percent of male physicians.
- The results are still only a bit better when asked about the future of the profession: with 46 percent of female physicians saying they are optimistic and 41 percent of male physicians indicating the same.
Where numbers get especially troubling is with regard to healthcare reform and the electronic patient record.
- An underwhelming 26 percent of female physicians say healthcare reform will improve patient care, while 22 percent of male physicians say the same.
- Only a quarter (25 percent) of female physicians say electronic medical records will help improve the quality of patient care, while a really disturbing 16 percent of male physicians say that electronic medical records are just what the doctor ordered.
Clearly physicians are their own worst patients when it comes to optimism about the profession. So why all the gloom and doom among physicians about their own lot? There are a few factors, according to Walker Ray, MD, chairman of the research committee at The Physicians Foundation: uncertainty of the changes going on in the field, especially under healthcare reform; increasing liability and the practice of defensive medicine; increasing healthcare regulations; and frustrations with medical reimbursements. Other factors reported by physicians included the pressure to see more patients; patient tracking and reporting demands; the loss of autonomy; and the feeling of being second-guessed by insurance companies. Then of course, there are the long hours and lack of personal time.
All-in-all, the majority of physicians say that the fun has been taken out of the trade. And if given the opportunity to retire today, 60 percent of all physicians say they would do so. If that number sounds depressing, it should. When the study was last conducted in 2008, 45 percent of respondents said they would retire if they could.
[See also: Young doctors' outlook on the future of healthcare is gloomy]
The Physicians Foundation study was not meant to be a damning review of physician morale. It just turned out that way.
“We wanted to assess the status of how physicians felt about healthcare during one of the most transformative times in it,” Ray said. “To do that, we looked at professional satisfaction and morale. The results were pretty startling.”
On whole, 80 percent of America’s physicians – male and female – have a negative view of their field, Ray said.
Besides morale levels, there are some other gender-specific results of The Physicians Foundation study. Fifty percent more female physicians than male physicians (32 percent versus 23 percent) complained of the lack of personal time available to them. Conversely, more female physicians are opting to work part time (27 percent versus 18 percent of male physicians); a trend which Ray said will likely grow.
While that last statistic may seem to have only personal impact on the respective physicians, Ray said the broader impact is far more important.
“Physicians had 16 percent fewer patient visits last year,” Ray said. “With approximately 1.2 billion patient visits in the United States in 2012, that is probably around 100 million fewer patient visits.”
So what accounts for the difference in how female and male physicians see their lots in life? The answer lies partly in personality type, according to Betsy Styron, president of the Center for the Application of Personality Type (CAPT), the organization built around the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator.
Used correctly, Myers-Briggs is a method for measuring and understanding individual personality types. It can reveal how people prefer to receive information, how they form opinions and how they communicate. Myers-Briggs is now the most popular tool in the workplace for analyzing personality types, according to management consultants.
Ironically, Isabelle Myers did a great deal of her early work on personality types with medical students, though at the time (the 1950s), the vast majority of those going into the field were male. But over the last half century, the CAPT has compiled a truckload of data about personality types in virtually all careers, and preferred work and communication styles in each.
In general, CAPT data reveals that in the healthcare field, there is a higher percentage of introverted-feeling types that go into family medicine or primary care roles, and women represent a higher than average percentage, Styron says. Conversely, a higher than average percentage of males in the healthcare field tends to prefer specialty areas, especially surgery.
But beyond that, what does Myers-Briggs have to say on the matter of gender attitudes in healthcare? The answer is found in the report “Myers-Briggs Type and Medical Specialty Choice: A New Look at An Old Question.”
“Despite the enormous changes in the practice of medicine over the past 40 years and the dramatic increase in the number of women, the distribution of type has remained fairly stable. … It is more likely that women who entered medicine earlier had to be more like men on this dimension (more tough-minded thinking types) to feel comfortable and accepted in what was a very male-dominated field. In the current sample with 40 percent women, perhaps a critical mass has been reached so that all types of women feel comfortable entering medicine.”