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67. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC)
Joint Meeting mit der Koreanischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (KNS)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC) e. V.

12. - 15. Juni 2016, Frankfurt am Main

Children and career: survey on work-life balance among German Neurosurgeons

Meeting Abstract

  • Jonas Schäuble - Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsmedizin Mainz, Germany
  • Armin Scheurich - Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsmedizin Mainz, Germany
  • Mirjam Renovanz - Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsmedizin Mainz, Germany
  • Alf Giese - Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsmedizin Mainz, Germany
  • Angelika Gutenberg - Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsmedizin Mainz, Germany

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 67. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC), 1. Joint Meeting mit der Koreanischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (KNS). Frankfurt am Main, 12.-15.06.2016. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2016. DocMI.20.03

doi: 10.3205/16dgnc358, urn:nbn:de:0183-16dgnc3589

Veröffentlicht: 8. Juni 2016

© 2016 Schäuble et al.
Dieser Artikel ist ein Open-Access-Artikel und steht unter den Lizenzbedingungen der Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (Namensnennung). Lizenz-Angaben siehe http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.


Gliederung

Text

Objective: Striking a balance between children and career especially in surgical disciplines is difficult. We designed a national survey to reflect the present work-life balance of female and male neurosurgeons of different training levels with and without children.

Method: A 46-item, web-based survey was sent to 996 neurosurgeons.

Results: 32.2% of residents, 73.8% of consultants, 77.8% of senior consultants and 91% of directors had children. 72% of all kids were under the age of 6 years. 82.5% of all participants were married or lived in a solid partnership. Female senior consultants and directors had significantly less children than their male colleagues of the same position (p<0.0001). 57% of female and 47% of male neurosurgeons had the desire for (more) children, declining with age and position. The cause for absent wish for children in women was work-related (42%), whereas in men it was the already existing number of children in 68.2% and only for reasons related to work in 18.1%. 35.2% of male and 64.5% of female neurosurgeons stated that they would be academically more sucessful if they were childless (p<0.0001). Women more often did not return to the same working place after family-leave (p=0.08). In 90.4% no maternity covers were done by the employers but labour was substituted by co-workers. Part-time work and temporary contracts were significantly dependent on parenthood (p<0.0001). Female neurosurgeons experience a significantly higher double burden regarding work and private life (p<0.0001). In cases of children's illness, female neurosurgeons more often took the responsibility for childcare (p<0.0001) as they can seldom rely on spouses at home – in contrast to men (p<0.0001). 29.6% state organizational difficulties when participating in on-call service, dependent on training levels and parenthood (p<0.001). 44.3% report that extra educational training opportunities are not compatible with family life. In general, satisfaction with work-life balance rose with age of neurosurgeons and their children, position and parenthood. 70% of parents suggested that compatibility with family life would be improved by strict adherence to or more flexible working time.

Conclusions: Children make a substantial contribution to overall life-quality. Nevertheless, children still mean a slower academic advancement of mothers and imply a higher work-life burden, especially among residents. Generally, compatibility with family life with neurosurgery would be realized better through a more reliable working time.