gms | German Medical Science

GMS Journal for Medical Education

Gesellschaft für Medizinische Ausbildung (GMA)

ISSN 2366-5017

Securing Medical Provision through Family-Friendly Personnel Policies

Abstract medicine

Search Medline for

  • corresponding author Andreas Schütze - Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg, Head of Finance, Human Resources, Controlling, Building, Construction and Organisation, Stuttgart, Germany

GMS Z Med Ausbild 2012;29(2):Doc25

doi: 10.3205/zma000795, urn:nbn:de:0183-zma0007951

This is the English version of the article.
The German version can be found at: http://www.egms.de/de/journals/zma/2012-29/zma000795.shtml

Received: March 16, 2011
Revised: May 4, 2011
Accepted: May 24, 2011
Published: April 23, 2012

© 2012 Schütze.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Abstract

Enabling better reconciliation of work and family is one of the main pillars of the gender equality policy of the Ministry for Science, Research and Art. In the competition for the best minds at our universities and university hospitals, a family-friendly HR policy is key, especially in medicine. More and more well-trained doctors are lost, especially specialist surgeons, to other European countries. Therefore Germany urgently needs to create more family-friendly medical workplaces. This needs to start in medical school and needs to continue during specialisation.

For this reason we are promoting the project “Family-friendly medical studies in Baden-Württemberg" at the University of Ulm. In addition, the Association for Student Affairs supports students through childcare facilities, family housing and counselling centres at the universities.

The fact that 39% of employed physicians have not specialised is unsatisfactory. With a share of 58% of graduates, specialist training in all specialisations should be more easily reconcilable with family responsibilities in order to safeguard medical care in Germany in the coming years.


Competing interests

The author declares that he has no competing interests.