Policies, Practices, and Attitudes Related to Parental Leave for Practicing Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeons
Grant Recipient: Daniel J. Miller, MD & Candice Legister, BS
- Institution:
- Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare
- Presentations & Publications:
- Presentations:
Our research team submitted an abstract to the 2023 POSNA meeting in Atlanta, and it is
currently under review.
Legister C, Morgan S, Samora J, Weiss J, Caird M, Miller D. Policies, Practices, and
Attitudes Related to Parental Leave for Practicing Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeons. Pediatric
Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA) Annual Meeting, Nashville, TN, April 26–28,
2023 (under review).
Publications:
Results from this study were submitted to the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics in September,
2022, and is currently under review.
Legister CS, James C, Truong WH, Guillaume TJ, Harding DC, Palmer CL, Morgan SJ,
Beauchamp EC, Perra JH, Miller DJ. The Effects of Gastrojejunostomy Tube Placement on
Pulmonary and Gastrointestinal Complications following Spinal Fusion for Neuromuscular
Scoliosis. J Ped Ortho. (under review).
- Additional Information:
- We believe the results of this study are a valuable contribution to the scientific literature on the health and wellness of pediatric orthopaedic surgeons, and we are grateful to have had the opportunity to conduct this study.
Name of Principal Investigator: Daniel Miller, MD and Candice Legister, Research Fellow
Study title: Policies, Practices, and Attitudes related to Parental Leave for Practicing Pediatric
Orthopaedic Surgeons
Name of award: POSNA 2021 Fall Micro Grant
Year in which the grant was funded: 2021
Study Aims/Summary Description:
Parental leave significantly impacts family engagement, bonding, stress, and happiness. Thus,
parental leave benefits are important to all surgeons irrespective of gender. Understanding
parental leave practices in pediatric orthopaedics is critical to advance equity within the
profession, support physician wellness, and promote work/life integration. Although parental
leave policies for medical trainees are standardized, policies affecting practicing surgeons are
poorly understood.
The purpose of this study was to survey pediatric orthopaedic surgeons on policies,
experiences, and attitudes related to parental leave.
Research findings:
Results: A total of 102 responses were recorded (6.5% response rate), of which 77 were
eligible. Most respondents were male (59.7%), aged ≤49 (67.5%), married (90.9%), and
practicing in urban communities (75.3%). The majority did not know their employer’s policies for
maternal (53.3%), paternal (67.5%) or adoption (85.7%) leave.
Participants who knew their institutions’ leave policies reported having an average of 7.4(±4.6)
weeks of maternal leave, 3.3(±4.5) weeks of paternal leave, and 4.2(±4.7) weeks of adoption
leave. In contrast, average desired leave times were longer for maternal, paternal, and adoption
leave, with 12.1(±5.2), 7.7(±5.3), and 9.6(±5.8) weeks desired, respectively (Table 1). Of
surgeons who had a child while in practice (n=29), the mean actual time taken was 4.6(±4.4)
weeks.
While most respondents described their work environment as “supportive” (40.3%) or
“somewhat supportive” (35.1%), 19.5% of respondents reported that they felt their current work
environment was “somewhat unsupportive” or “unsupportive” of parental leave.
Parental leave was reported to be fully paid by 42.5% of participants; 61.0% of survey
respondents thought that parental leave should be fully paid by employers.
Overall, survey respondents thought call responsibilities should not be made up before or after
leave (75.3%). Nonetheless, most participants who took leave reported fully (53.3%) or partially
(13.3%) compensating for missed call responsibilities.
Conclusions: This study identified opportunities for improvement to support surgeons who wish
to balance work responsibilities with parental experiences and duties. Most pediatric
orthopaedic surgeons were unfamiliar with their employer’s parental leave benefits.
Respondents that were familiar with these policies believed that more parental leave should be
provided, especially for men who may feel social pressures to take less time for leave.
Expenditures: A total of $1,000 of our $1,000 budget was utilized in support of this project.
