“I may be essential but someone has to look after my kids”: women physicians and COVID-19

Objectives This paper analyzes results from focus groups held with women physicians in British Columbia which explored questions around how gender norms and roles influenced their experiences during COVID-19. Methods Four virtual focus groups were organized between July and September 2020. Participants (n = 27) were voluntarily recruited. Data were analyzed using applied thematic analysis. Results In addition to the COVID-19-related changes experienced across the profession, women physicians faced distinct challenges related to an increase in unpaid care responsibilities, and often felt excluded from, and occasionally dismissed by, leadership. Women leaders often felt their contributions were unrecognized and undervalued. Participants drew strength from other women leaders, peer networks, and professional support, but these strategies were limited by unpaid care and emotional labour demands, which were identified as increasing risk of burnout. Discussion Even though women physicians hold a degree of relative privilege, unpaid care work and gender norms contribute to distinct secondary effects of COVID-19. Women physicians link these to pre-pandemic assumptions (within families and communities) that women would absorb care deficits at their own cost. Health system leadership continues to reflect a masculine normative experience wherein the personal and professional are separated, and which devalues the emotional labour often associated with feminine leadership. The strategies participants employed to address negative impacts, while demonstrating resourcefulness and peer support, reflect individualistic responses to social-structural challenges. There is a need for greater recognition of women’s contributions at home and work, increased representation in decision-making, and practical supports such as childcare and counselling.

Investigation of Health Behavior on Burnout Scores in Women Physicians who Self-Identify as Runners: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study

As the proportion of women in the physician workforce increases, burnout in this population warrants further investigation. Exercise is an often-proposed strategy to combat burnout. Evaluating physical activity across a cohort of women physicians can assess associations of health behaviors with burnout. Cross-sectional study of women attending physicians in the United States who are actively engaged in a social media group for runners. An electronic survey comprised of 60 questions covering demographics, health behaviors, and burnout was administered. A healthy lifestyle subgroup (HLS) was defined based on American Heart Association physical activity and nutrition recommendations. We determine the prevalence of burnout and investigate associations between health behavior factors and burnout. Of the 369 included surveys, most respondents were at least six years out from medical training (85.9%) and White (74.5%). Forty-two percent experienced burnout symptoms. Time exercising was significantly associated with fruit/vegetable consumption ( P=.00002). There was no significant difference in burnout between the HLS compared to others ( P = .37). This group of self-reported physically active women physicians was found to have a lower prevalence of burnout when compared to other women physicians. Exercise and nutrition may be protective against burnout in women physicians but deserve further investigation.

4. Private horrors

‘Private horrors’ details the experiences of plague, looking at narrative sources illustrating how people coped. There were always two stories to tell about plague. One is about heroes undeterred by contagion, the other about victims of harsh officialdom and of quarantine measures. The fullest accounts tried to combine the two and show men and women, physicians, churchmen, magistrates, and citizens trying to cooperate in impossible circumstances. Most poignant of all are expressions of the pain and loss created by one of plague’s cruellest features: the heavy mortality it inflicted on single families and households, as relatives and servants died one after the other.