Question of the Month
Join the conversation and submit your thoughts on the Question of the Month. E-mail your answer - or if you have a suggestion for next month - to wts@wtsnet.org. Replies will be posted on this page. Check back often for updates!
- How much maternity leave should cardiothoracic surgery residents receive? June 2008
"Four weeks for an uncomplicated pregnancy/delivery; six to eight weeks for a complicated pregnancy/delivery."
- Jemi Olak, MD, Kern Medical Center
"The same amount as general surgery residents."
- Leslie J. Kohman, MD, Upstate Medical University
"As one who had four children during my residency, I feel maternity leave needs to be dealt with as the rest of the world does. Most employers offer up to 3 months of leave time for maternity leave. Women would then have to extend their training to still complete the training requirements. This would have to be well coordinated with the program directors. In the 'old days' I took all my vacation for the year (4 weeks) as a lump for maternity leave and finished on time with the rest of my colleagues."
- Jane Schwabe, MD, Heartland Health, The Heart Center
"Residency is a very difficult time to have a pregnancy. My feeling was that I would be a better provider and parent once my career was established. Friends of mine who do have regular jobs and nannies enjoy their professional and family lives so much more than any other group that I know."
- Farah Rahman, MD, Albany Medical College
"Two to six weeks, like every other resident."
- Susan D. Moffatt-Bruce, MD, The Ohio State University
ARCHIVED Q&As
- How do we recruit more residents to choose cardiothoracic surgery? May 2008
We are a small specialty, so we don't need to recruit huge numbers. BUT we do need to recruit MORE than we currently get to apply and we need to recruit QUALITY. The results of the 2009 match came out this week. There were 94 matches for 118 positions. Even with so many unmatched positions, there were 8 applicants who did not match! Interpret that data as you will, this is clearly a significant problem. The solution must be individual. Attentive mentorship is really key to attracting more and better candidates to our specialty. As women, we tend to be natural mentors, and this shows in the rising numbers of women applying, entering and graduating from thoracic surgery residencies. Only we (surgeons of both genders) can overcome the years of "bad boy" image that thoracic surgeons have acquired, and we need to do it one student, one resident at a time.
-- A.J. Carpenter, UT Health Science Center-San Antonio