ACC: Career flexibility needed to ensure well-being of cardiology workforce
Fostering flexible schedules at all stages of the cardiology career arc can improve retention, increase career longevity and address diversity and inclusion, according to a health policy statement from the American College of Cardiology.
“[T]he ACC highlights the need for our profession to focus attention on flexible careers and to create solutions that promote cardiologists’ personal and professional well-being while preserving excellence in clinical care,” Cardiology Today Editorial Board Member Mary Norine Walsh, MD, MACC, medical director of heart failure and cardiac transplantation at Ascension St. Vincent Heart Center in Indianapolis and past president of the ACC, and colleagues wrote in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. “The ACC believes this can be accomplished fairly through the prospective development of flexible/part-time hours, leave and reentry policies, changes in job description supported by overarching cultural change, and equitable compensation and opportunity plans. Only then can we build a well-rounded cardiology workforce that enjoys satisfactory work-life integration.”
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In the statement, the ACC noted that all cardiologists should have access to flexibility in hours and work commitments according to personal needs, preferences and expertise while being mindful of patient, program, team and institutional needs. Flexibility options should be transparent and supported by equally transparent policies, they wrote, adding that flexibility in fellowship training should be considered by the ACC, the American Board of Internal Medicine and relevant subspecialty stakeholders. Additionally, work assignments after busy overnight shifts should be adjusted to “mitigate the possible effects of fatigue on patient care and physician well-being.”
“The relative inflexibility of the cardiology profession also likely contributes to the lack of well-being among cardiologists, which, although not unique to cardiology, is a substantial reason for a potentially negative practice environment,” the researchers wrote. “Recent surveys of cardiologists have found a self-reported burnout rate of 27% to 43%, caused by multiple factors, most often related to systems rather than the individual. Physicians experiencing burnout are more likely to retire early and/or work part-time and are twice as likely as those without burnout symptoms to leave their place of work.”
The statement noted that intensifying patient complexity, new procedures and innovation in techniques, along with unforeseen burdens such as electronic medical records, have placed new burdens on cardiologists that must be considered. Policies, structures and expectations must also allow early-career cardiologists adequate time to start and nurture healthy families while also enabling midcareer cardiologists the flexibility to care for themselves or family or to pursue outside interests alongside medicine while also creating pathways for older cardiologists to continue to contribute their expertise and experience.
“The ACC believes this can be accomplished fairly, through the prospective development of flexible/part-time hours, leave and reentry policies, changes in job descriptions supported by overarching cultural change, and equitable compensation and opportunity plans,” the researchers wrote. “Only then can we build a well-rounded cardiology workforce that enjoys satisfactory work-life integration.”
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