Underrepresented in medicine faculty report low career satisfaction
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Key takeaways:
- Results showed underrepresented race and ethnicity in medicine respondents reported lower career satisfaction vs. white respondents.
- Researchers designed and tested a leadership development and peer mentorship curriculum.
Career trajectories differed by race and ethnicity among a cohort of “particularly promising” clinician-researchers, with many reporting being likely to leave their current positions in medicine in 2 years, according to survey results.
The findings specifically showed that underrepresented race and ethnicity in medicine [URM] faculty reported a higher likelihood of leaving their current positions compared with white faculty.
Assessing turnover
“Anyone who has ever been sick can attest that all Americans depend on the success of clinician-researchers pursuing careers in academic medicine,” Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, FASCO, FASTRO, Lawrence W. Davis professor and chair of the department of radiation oncology at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University and member of the Women in Oncology Peer Perspective Board, told Healio. “The group we studied is a particularly promising group of individuals who had received prestigious, competitive career development grants from the NIH early in their careers as faculty members. We were interested in understanding their satisfaction and intentions to leave their jobs later in their careers because turnover of faculty is costly, not only to academic institutions but to society as a whole.”
Researchers developed a questionnaire administered via mail and online from August 2021 to August 2022 to recipients of K08 or K23 awards between 2006 and 2009.
Outcomes of interest included Career Satisfaction Scale (measured on a five-point Likert scale, with higher scores representing greater satisfaction), Effort Discrepancy Scale (discrepancy between ideal and actual expected career path; measured on a five-point Likert scale, with higher scores representing greater satisfaction), and the probability of leaving current position within 2 years. Investigators analyzed findings by gender, race and ethnicity.
‘Racial differences’
Overall, 926 individuals completed the survey.
Researchers found that 91% of all respondents (89.3% of men respondents, 92.2% of women respondents, 92% of Asian individuals, 88% of URM individuals and 90.8% of white individuals) remained in academic positions; 7% reported leaving academic positions.
Results showed mean score of 4.17 (95% CI, 4.12-4.22) on the Career Satisfaction Scale and mean score of 2.07 (95% CI, 2-2.15) on the Effort Discrepancy Scale. Of note, 17.4% (95% CI, 15-20) of all respondents reported a high probability to leave their current position within 2 years.
Researchers observed no statistically significant gender differences in career satisfaction, effort discrepancy or likelihood of leaving their current position in 2 years.
However, URM respondents had lower career satisfaction (mean, 4.02; 95% CI, 3.83-4.21) than white respondents (mean, 4.2; 95% CI, 4.15-4.26). In addition, Asian respondents had higher effort discrepancy (mean, 2.21; 95% CI, 2.03-2.38) than white respondents (mean, 2; 95% CI, 1.91-2.09).
Moreover, results showed a likelihood of leaving current positions within 2 years of 21.9% (95% CI, 15.6%-29.9%) among Asian respondents and 22.7% (95% CI, 13.3%- 35.9%) among URM respondents vs. 15% (95% CI, 12-18.7) among white respondents.
“It was concerning to observe racial differences, although modest, in certain outcomes, including discrepancies between the ideal career these highly promising faculty once envisioned and what their actual expectations of their career now are,” Jagsi said. “These findings merit attention because the faculty we studied are uniquely positioned to contribute to care and research that advances the health of our society.”
Researchers reported limitations of the study, including “the possibility of selection bias and insufficient numbers to assess interactions between race and gender.”
Ensuring vitality
Based on these findings, Jagsi and colleagues designed and tested a leadership development and peer mentorship curriculum in a randomized trial supported by NIH.
“We look forward to reporting the results of that evaluation in due course,” she said. “Efforts to ensure the vitality of this key segment of the workforce are essential to ensure that all talented faculty have opportunities to contribute and improve the chance that we all benefit from their contributions.”
For more information:
Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, FASCO, FASTRO, can be reached at rjagsi@emory.edu.
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