Pilot program improves wellness, work productivity of physician parents

Key takeaways

• New and expecting physician parents found a pilot program to have improved their productivity during their return to work, with most stating the program’s coaching sessions and lactation stipends were “particularly helpful.”
• The program was designed to help physicians during a vulnerable time in their careers and avoid burnout.

CHICAGO — A small pilot program improved the wellness and work productivity of expectant and new physician parents by offering them coaching sessions and stipends for lactation support, a recent study found.

Speaking to Healio, lead author Josephine Li, MD, an endocrinologist in the diabetes unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, and senior author Laura Dichtel, MD, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, said the inspiration for the program came from their own experiences, which they referred to as a vulnerable time for returning physician parents who are “often not able to advocate for themselves.”

“Many of us had started families as fellows or junior faculty, and we realized that we all could have benefited from having a coach — an ‘expert’ parent who had been through it before — to offer practical advice, guidance and support throughout the expectant phase and early parenthood. We asked ourselves, ‘What would I have wanted to know going into parental leave and upon my return to work?’” they said in a joint email.

The program, titled Support Our Physician Parents (SOPPort), aimed to not only provide lactation and feeding support for returning physician parents, but also reduce burnout and increase productivity.

Li and Dichtel, who presented their study at the Women In Medicine Summit in Chicago, noted that the core components of SOPPort included “the coaching program, which was designed to help new physician parents avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’ so to speak, by providing practical advice on topics such as planning and preparing for parental leave, arranging clinical and/or research coverage, breastfeeding and pumping, child care options, staying connected as a new parent, and maintaining productivity with new time constraints.”

The coaching program comprised four, 1-hour sessions for 11 physicians (8 men; 3 women) during the expectant phase through 1 year of their children’s lives. A dozen women physicians received $500 stipends to defray the costs of wearable pumps, formula or feeding supplies.

Six participants responded to an anonymous survey, and among those, 100% felt the program improved their productivity at work. Parental coaching and lactation stipends were “particularly helpful” for 100% and 83%, respectively.

In a survey sent out to physicians in the department of medicine who were not eligible for the pilot program, 78% rated their return to work after becoming a new parent as “difficult” or “very difficult,” 82% reported there being no one at work to help them through their transition, and 96% stated that the SOPPort program would have been helpful to them.

Li and Dichtel noted that securing funding for programs like SOPPort is a challenge, but the positive testimonials they received from participants in the program “truly say it all” — suggesting that it improves wellness, reduces burnout, helps maintain academic productivity and strengthens the health care provider community.

“There is a lot of work to be done to support new parents in medicine, but we are proud to offer this program to physician parents in our institution and will continue to advocate for parental wellness and lactation support,” they said.