Perceptions, understanding and utilization of family-friendly policies among faculty at a large academic health sciences center
Jackie Lin, Jessica Khaw, Katherine Lo, Brian Alldredge, Jennifer L. Kerns, Christina Mangurian, Lekshmi SanthoshBackground
Family caregiving burden often disproportionately falls on women healthcare workers and can hinder career progression. Proactively addressing caregiving needs is essential to retain outstanding faculty in medicine, maintain well-being and prevent burnout. Additionally, caregiving policies, once implemented by institutions, need to be readily accessible and utilized by all faculty. This study investigates faculty awareness, utilization and perception of family-friendly policies at a large academic health sciences medical center.
Methods
This cross-sectional, mixed-methods study surveyed faculty at an academic health sciences institution in 2018. The survey queried awareness, need, utilization, and adequacy of faculty family-friendly initiatives (“3FI”) including childbearing and childrearing leave, active service modified duties, deferral of merit/promotion review, temporary reduction in effort, and the ‘Stop the Clock’ initiative. Thematic analyses explored how participants thought the institution could better support families.
Results
Of 2686 eligible faculty, 988 participated in the survey and 651 were included in analysis. Most faculty reported limited understanding of most 3FI policies, and most faculty who needed 3FI policies did not ask for them because of financial burden, fear of appearing less committed, and limited flexibility of grant-funded research. Length of childrearing and childbearing leave were deemed inadequate by the majority of faculty who used them. Main areas identified as targets for improvement included scheduling flexibility, childcare, changing the expectations of faculty culture, and clarity of 3FI policies.
Discussion
More efforts should be made to educate faculty about policies that may support their family and caregiving needs. Shifts in workplace culture, financial support, and increased flexibility at the institutional level may help address cultural and scheduling challenges with requesting and utilizing these policies during times of need.