Prevalence of caregiving and high caregiving strain among late-career medical school faculty members: workforce, policy, and faculty development implications

Background Nearly one-third of medical school faculty members are age 55 + . As our population ages, the prevalence of family caregiving is increasing, yet we know very little about the caregiving experiences of aging faculty members in academic medicine. Faculty caregiving responsibilities coupled with projected physician shortages will likely impact the future academic medical workforce. We examined the prevalence of caregiving, concomitant caregiving strain, general well-being, and thoughts about retirement for medical school faculty members age 55 and older. Methods We analyzed data from a survey of 2,126 full-time medical school faculty 55 + years of age conducted in 2017. Chi-square tests of independence and independent samples t-tests were used to examine statistical differences between subgroups. Results Of the 5,204 faculty members invited to complete the parent survey, 40.8% participated (N = 2126). Most were male (1425; 67.2%), White (1841; 88.3%), and married/partnered (1803; 85.5%). The mean age was 62.3 years. Of this sample, 19.0% (n = 396) reported providing care on an on-going basis to a family member, friend, or neighbor with a chronic illness or disability, including 22.4% (n = 154) of the female respondents and 17.3% (n = 242) of the male respondents. Among the caregiving faculty members, 90.2% reported experiencing some or a lot of mental or emotional strain from caregiving. Caregivers gave lower ratings of health, social and emotional support, and quality of life, but greater comfort in religion or spirituality than non-caregivers. Both caregiving and non-caregiving faculty members estimated retiring from full-time employment at age 67.8, on average. Conclusion These data highlight caregiving responsibilities and significant concomitant mental or emotional strain of a significant proportion of U.S. medical schools’ rapidly aging workforce. Human resource and faculty development leaders in academia should strategically invest in policies, programs, and resources to meet these growing workforce needs.

Organizational behavior among academic medical school faculty

The study of organizational behavior in an academic medical school setting has many variables for consideration, including fragmentation, responsibilities, professionalism, burnout, and gender. In this Commentary, the author highlights some major factors affecting osteopathic physicians who practice in an academic setting, to bring to the attention of the medical community some of the inherent problems with modern academic medical education structure.

Imagination, the first virtual meeting

Two regional medical school faculty have a meeting of the minds as they seek ways to stop the spread of COVID-19. A combination of expertise and imagination resulted in entertaining kid-friendly information to promote COVID-19 awareness and prevention practices. What started as a seemingly small health promotion project for children quickly blossomed into an impactful, far-reaching venture that cuts across distance, cultures, and disciplines as the resources travel regionally and internationally, are translated to multiple languages, and evolve into new, cutting edge COVID-19 research and innovative methods of providing supportive services for youth in a Native American community.

A Survey of U.S. Medical School Full-Time Faculty Members Age 55+ One-fifth are caregivers and most report caregiving strain

Background Nearly one-third of medical school faculty members are age 55+. As the global population ages, the prevalence of family caregiving is increasing, yet we know very little about the caregiving experiences of aging faculty members in academic medicine. Faculty caregiving responsibilities coupled with projected physician shortages and burnout will likely impact the workforce. We examined the prevalence of caregiving and concomitant caregiving strain and well-being differences between aging, male and female medical school faculty members.Methods We analyzed data from a survey of 2,126 full-time medical school faculty 55 + years of age conducted in 2017. We used chi-square tests of independence and independent samples t-tests to calculate statistical differences between groups.Results Of the faculty members invited to participate, 40.8% completed the survey (N = 2,126). Most were male (1,425; 67.2%), white (1,841; 88.3%), and married/partnered (1,803; 85.5%). The mean age was 62.3 years. Of this sample, 19.0% reported providing care on an on-going basis to a family member, friend, or neighbor with a chronic illness or disability (17.3% [n = 242] of the 1,425 males and 22.4% [n = 154] of female respondents). Among the 396 caregiving faculty members, 90.2% reported experiencing some or a lot of mental or emotional strain from caregiving. Compared to their female faculty caregiver counterparts, males were older (mean age 62.3 years vs. 60.0) and more likely to be married and not living alone.Conclusion These data highlight caregiving responsibilities and significant concomitant mental or emotional strain of a significant proportion of U.S. medical schools’ rapidly aging workforce. Human resource leaders in academic medicine should increase attention to these expanding needs.

The Veterans Affairs Healthcare System and Academic Pathology Departments: Evaluation of the Relationship

A survey was conducted to evaluate the relationship between Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems and academic departments of pathology in their respective affiliated schools of medicine. Most (73%) of the responding academic departments were within 5 miles of their Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems; 60% of Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems supported 1 to 5 full-time pathologist positions at the Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems while 70% provided 1 to 5 full-time resident positions; only 34% of academic departments had “without compensation” appointments at the Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems while 20% had fee-based consulting appointments; 62% of academic departments granted academic appointments to full-time Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems pathologists while few (26%) had split appointments between the academic department and the Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems; only half of academic departments granted the same academic privileges to Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems pathologists as they did to full-time university faculty; 60% of the Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems pathologists were not involved in recruitment of medical school faculty while 58% of medical school faculty were not involved in recruitment of Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems pathologists; most academic departments reported no research space at the Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems (68%) and no Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems research support (72%); only 23% of academic departments reported a sharing agreement that allows the Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems to perform clinical work for the academic department while 36% reported an agreement that permits the academic department to perform clinical work for the Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems; only 32% of academic departments indicated that the Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems Chief of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service is a member of the academic department leadership team. All academic departments reported that the Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems plays a significant role in education of medical students, residents, and fellows. Strengths and weaknesses of the Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems/academic department relationships are identified.

My Mentors in Medicine

The author describes his journey of learning in medicine from childhood through graduation from medical school. The author describes how each of his mentors played a specific role at crucial points in his development. His parents and a high school professor inspired him to pursue medicine as a career. Academic, clinical, and research mentors assisted in the author's preparation for medical school. Finally, medical school faculty and staff at Weill Cornell Medicine enriched his medical school experience, guided his choice of psychiatry as a specialty, and encouraged him to think about the structure of his future career. The author gratefully emphasizes the importance of all of his mentors' efforts and resolves to serve a similar mentorship role for the next generation of physicians.