As we recently closed the academic year last month, I attended our graduating fellows’ dinner and I was reminded of the continued challenges of motherhood for many female cardiologists. This reminder came in the form of a conversation I had with one of our Interventional Cardiology fellows who was completing her Interventional fellowship and we were discussing the challenges of being a mother and navigating a career in Cardiology. I gave her some pearls of wisdom from my own experiences that I have had so far in my career and am still learning myself.
These conversations took me back thirteen years ago when I started my fellowship as a general cardiology fellow and was entering into my ninth month of pregnancy. I still remember walking into the cardiology conference room on the first day of fellowship orientation and feeling all the doubts and fears of wondering if I would make it through those three years. Although I had completed my Internal Medicine residency and had garnered the recognition from my attendings and colleagues as a Chief Resident, my confidence was shaken as a young soon to be mother entering this challenging field. There are many pearls of wisdom I have learnt or have been taught along the way. In this month’s blog I will be discussing a few of these pearls of wisdom.
Before discussing these pearls I will delve into the statistics with regards to females and our experience in the Cardiology field.
Statistics on Gender gaps in Cardiology and its Challenges for Mothers
Unfortunately there is still a scarcity of females in the Cardiology field. Females represent only 13 % of Cardiologists in the United States (US)1. Female representation is even lower in the procedural fields of Cardiology such as Interventional Cardiology where only approximately 8% of interventional cardiologists are females and only 6% of electrophysiologists are females1. Among Cardiologists in the US, 72 percent of female cardiologists are mothers and 86 percent of male cardiologists are fathers. It is important to note that most of these fathers (57%) have a spouse who provides child care at home while only 13% of these mothers have similar support1. This poses a significant challenge for mothers in the field of Cardiology as most often there are long work hours in addition to overnight call particularly during fellowship training. There is also a significant lack of scheduling flexibility during these training years and also in practice. These challenges often result in reliance on extended family members, colleagues, or hired help to assist with child care.
Another challenge in our field is the concern with regards to radiation exposure particularly during procedural rotations and for proderural specialties such as Interventional Cardiology, Electrophysiology as well as the emerging field of Structural Cardiac Imaging. This poses challenges for mothers who are considering pregnancy or who are pregnant.
Generally, the Cardiology field is perceived as a very difficult field with long and grueling work hours. This perception along with the very unfortunate fact that it is still a male predominant field with potential gender bias and discrimination has resulted in many very talented females avoiding this field altogether.
As mothers in Cardiology we are pulled in 2 different directions, one direction with regards to our patient care and professional duties and responsibilities and the other direction with regards to our duties and responsibilities as a mother. While this seems daunting, there are several actions that can be taken to mitigate these challenges so that we can feel fulfilled both as a mother and as a Cardiologist.
Pearls of Wisdom
Build Your Support System- Your “Village”
Regardless of whether you are in training or in practice as a Mother in Cardiology, one thing will remain true throughout your career, you will need to create and build your “village” of support. This village of support will be a necessity particularly with regards to child care during long days and long nights at work. This village of support involves your spouse, extended family members, your colleagues and/or hired help. This is a must, you will not be able to do this all on your own as much as we may have that “superwoman” mentality. Once you have created and built this village of support you should show your appreciation for each member of this village. This appreciation will go a long way especially when they may have to be called upon in the middle of the night or on weekends to provide child care when you have patient care duties to attend to.
Focus on Quality rather than Quantity of time with our Children:
Time with our children is precious, therefore focusing on making that time quality time is what is most important and will be the most memorable. Therefore, on weekends or days when you are away from work spending time with your children doing activities that are engaging, meaningful and fun is important.
Time Management
Planning your time both at work and at home with your children is a key factor. A family calendar is very useful in planning and managing time with your kids to ensure that there are no work scheduling conflicts. The weekend is a good time to reset, recover and plan for the week ahead. This may mean that meal plans are created for the week and food may need to be prepped ahead on the weekends so that preparing dinner in the week can be less daunting. This also applies to lunches for the children in the week.Grocery shopping should also be planned to alleviate that additional stress of getting this done in the week. Grocery delivery services may also be useful in this regard. Time for household chores should also be planned and if you are able to outsource some of these tasks to your spouse, older aged children, extended family members or hired help this is recommended.
Time management is also important at work to minimize any unnecessary distractions or interruptions so that we can perform our patient care duties in a safe and time efficient manner. Taking work home should be minimized as this often robs us of precious time that should be spent with our children and has the potential to result in professional burnout.
Time management is also vital with regards to professional activities such as board exam preparation and research activities. My advice is to start planning for these early in your training to give yourself enough lead time to be well prepared for the exam and with regards to research, enough lead time to complete your research activity during your training. As a fellow and even as a practicing cardiologist, a study guide should be created early so that you spend some time each day studying for board exams if applicable and reading the medical literature to keep yourself up to date in the field. Audio files are very useful especially during your commute to and from work as this will readily facilitate board exam preparation and even keeping up with the medical literature.
Prioritization
Making a “to do” list and prioritizing this list is important. You cannot do it all at the same time. There are times that less valuable activities with regards to motherhood or with regards to your profession may have to be placed on the “back burner” and revisited at another time when you may be available. There are times when these less valuable activities may even have to be deferred.
Finding Your “Me Time” is Important.
It is important to find the time to recharge and take care of yourself. Self care involves small things from finding the time at work to eat healthfully and rehydrate throughout the day. Self care also involves making the time to participate in an activity that takes you away from the throws of the day. This activity may be a hobby such as arts and crafts, gardening, playing an instrument, playing a sport or exercising. Making the time to exercise is also vital to maintain not only your health but to maintain your physical and mental endurance. Getting adequate sleep is another important part of self care as sleep deprivation results in increased risk of professional burnout and not being able to function at your best throughout the day. The emphasis is on making this time as often times it is far easier to have an excuse of not having the time to do these activities and it may create guilt as a mother. However, it is important to remember that if you are not happy and energized then this may be reflected at work and at home and in the long run will likely lead to a lack of fulfillment as a mother and as a cardiologist.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, it is important to seek assistance with your responsibilities if possible. Sometimes this assistance may have to be hired help. There are many services in the market that assist not only in child care but also provides assistance with other responsibilities such as professional cleaning services and laundry service. There are also tutoring services available to assist school aged children to not only ensure that they are completing assignments but to also ensure that they are keeping up with the school syllabus throughout the school year.
Finding a Mentor
Finding a mentor is important as this person not only provides guidance with regards to your career but could also be an advocate for you during your fellowship training. Developing and maintaining this mentorship relationship is invaluable and may evolve as you progress in your career. Having more than one mentor is often recommended as no one mentor will be able to provide guidance on every aspect of your career. For more ideas on the value of mentorship in Cardiology see my earlier blog on this topic.2
Negotiate for A Flexible Work Schedule
If it is possible it can be useful if a flexible schedule could be negotiated with your fellowship program director. An example of this would be allowing for time off for maternity leave after delivery of your child with the understanding that your fellowship completion date would be delayed to ensure that the 36 months of fellowship training is completed. Another example is re-arranging the fellowship rotation schedule to avoid exposure to radiation during cardiac cath rotations in your pregnancy. Therefore, during the pregnancy period rotations could be limited to those outside of the cardiac catheterization lab.
As a practicing cardiologist there may be more flexibility for negotiating with your practice group if in private practice or the Cardiology Chair if you are working in a hospital based academic setting to allow for an extended maternity leave or to have the ability to go part time during the pregnancy. There are unique challenges to these arrangements in a relative value unit (RVU) based productivity model. However, it is useful to try to negotiate for these arrangements to ensure that you have the time that you need to take care of your child after the delivery as those moments are precious and also to ensure that you are able to have the greatest chance for a healthy pregnancy with regards to a reasonable work schedule.
Change the things you can and accept the things you cannot change
As a working mother in a demanding job as a Cardiologist it is important to remember that you cannot do it all and you are not perfect. This is a struggle for most of us to remember as many of us are high achieving women. However, as mothers and as physicians we should strive to do our best for our children and the best for our patients with the understanding that there are times the outcome may not be what we hoped for. During these moments we have to realize that we are also human and we can only be expected to change the things we can and accept the things that we cannot change.
Work-Life Integration vs. Work Life Balance
Over the last 5 to 10 years the term “work life integration” has been seen as a more realistic goal for working mothers rather than “work life balance” as the latter is seen as more of a myth and a rather unrealistic goal for many. The boundaries between your professional life and your personal life is often blurred especially in a demanding field such as Cardiology. This is even more true in today’s practice environment with electronic medical records and constant connectivity between emails and texts. It is most desirable to unplug when we are away from work, however this is not always possible. We also have to embrace the fact we are working mothers in a demanding field that we can find fulfilling but is sometimes daunting. This means that achieving a balance between your professional life and your personal life is often impossible and many times we may have to incorporate the two roles in a more adaptive work-life integration model. This may mean that there are times you may have to take the kids along with you to a scientific medical meeting and this could be made possible particularly if your spouse or family member is able to attend with you to take care of the children while you are attending the sessions at the meeting. This integration of both of your roles allow for a happier situation both for yourself as a mother not having to spend a prolonged time away from your children and a happy situation for the children who often see this as vacation time with you. In fact several cardiology professional meetings have made accommodations for nursing mothers with areas designated at the meeting for nursing. This has a far reaching and positive impact for female cardiologists as this encourages attendance to these meetings even if nursing.
Conclusion
Being a female cardiologist and a mother, I consider to be a blessing. Our children often look up to us as positive role models as we navigate through a challenging and demanding Cardiology field to take care of our patients while also being able to take care of our children and provide the best life possible for them. I also believe that being a mother teaches us many skills that we often even subconsciously apply to our jobs as physicians to make us better listeners to our patients and better communicators with our patients. Being a mother also makes us more efficient with our time and more productive at work3. Our children also learn the values of hard work, dedication, compassion and empathy from our role as a Cardiologist. Embracing our roles of motherhood and a practicing female cardiologist can be fulfilling as we have the privilege of having a meaningful positive impact on the health of our patients while taking the best care of our children and “yes” we can have the best of both worlds.
References:
- Lewis SJ, Mehta LS, Douglas PS, Gulati M, Limacher MC, Poppas A, Walsh MN, Rzeszut AK, Duvernoy CS; American College of Cardiology Women in Cardiology Leadership Council. Changes in the Professional Lives of Cardiologists Over 2 Decades.J Am Coll Cardiol. 2017 Jan 31;69(4):452-462. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2016.11.027. Epub 2016 Dec 21. Review.
- Bullock-Palmer RP. The Invaluable Importance of Mentorship Throughout Your Career as a Female Cardiologist. American Heart Association Early Career blog site. February 25, 2019. https://earlycareervoice.professional.heart.org/the-invaluable-importance-of-mentorship-throughout-your-career-as-a-female-cardiologist/
- Krapf M, Ursprung HW, and Zimmermann C. Parenthood and Productivity of Highly Skilled Labor: Evidence from the Groves of Academe January 11, 2014