This is done to distinguish differences in the importance of tasks. In this article we will consider all tasks that do not belong to the core business of medical specialists, although they are formal tasks, as 'extra-role'. A distinction can be made between 'in-role' and 'extra-role' behaviour 'in-role' behaviour relates to the core task of medical specialists, and 'extra-role' behaviour refers to all tasks which are not formal tasks of medical specialists. However, results from several studies give no clear answer to the question as to whether part-time employees are less dedicated to their work or not. People tend to think that physicians who work part-time are less devoted to their work, implying that more tasks are completed by full-time physicians. Problems to be faced in the realization of part-time work in medicine include the distribution of night and weekend shifts, communication between physicians and continuity of care. the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US, with women making up nearly half of the medical student population. Growing numbers of female medical students can be found in other countries as well, e.g. In the Netherlands 50% to 60% of all medical students are female. The trend of an increasing number of part-time medical specialists is expected to continue, since it is predominantly women who work part-time, and the percentage of female medical specialists is increasing. This indicates an overall change in attitudes towards the number of hours medical specialists should work.Īs more and more medical specialists prefer to work part-time ], the question arises as to the consequences of this development for the tasks carried out by medical specialists. Part-time work is not only a female concern there are also (international) trends for male medical specialists that show a decline in the number of hours worked. Therefore, a greater number of medical specialists have to be trained. The trend in medicine towards more part-time work has an important consequence: more medical specialists are needed to get the work done. Besides input, output like the numbers of services provided deserves attention as well. In general, part-time medical specialists do their share of the job. The number of hours worked per FTE is higher for part-time than for full-time medical specialists, although this difference is only significant for surgeons.
With respect to night and weekend shifts, part-time medical specialists account for proportionally more or an equal share of these shifts. Part-time medical specialists do not spend proportionally more time on direct patient care. Multilevel analyses were used to analyze the data. Due to non-response on specific questions there were 367 internists, 316 surgeons, and 71 radiologists included in the analyses.
The response was 53% (n = 411) for internists, 52% (n = 359) for surgeons, and 36% (n = 213) for radiologists. Questions were asked about the actual situation, such as hours worked and night and weekend shifts. MethodsĪ questionnaire was sent by mail to all internists (N = 817), surgeons (N = 693) and radiologists (N = 621) working in general hospitals in the Netherlands. The central question in this article is whether part-time medical specialists allocate their time differently to their tasks than full-time medical specialists. People tend to think that physicians working part-time are less devoted to their work, implying that full-time physicians complete a greater number of tasks. Problems to be faced in the realization of part-time work in medicine include the division of night and weekend shifts, as well as communication between physicians and continuity of care. An increasing number of medical specialists prefer to work part-time.
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