How To Support Your Physician’s Growing Family

As a young physician and new mom, finding the right balance between your family and professional life can be challenging, to say the least. After all, you’re trying to juggle competing demands – your busy life as a physician or resident, and the needs of your child (or children) and home life.

So, what to do?

For any new mom, or dad, who’s also a physician, working for an organization that provides flexible scheduling and who understands the dual demands of your life is crucial. In some cases, that means allowing female physicians to work part-time as they raise their family or working fewer hours than other physicians. For many healthcare providers, these are important factors in retaining talented female physicians (and women are leaving academic medicine at a faster rate than men).

Moreover, as a female physician, your most productive years as a physician coincide with the years in which you’re most reproductive. But the field of medicine is expected to continue trending toward a much larger balance of women and men; in fact, by 2040 it’s projected that 50 percent of physicians will be women.

While the male-dominated world of medicine is slowly evolving and changing in ways that recognize the demands of motherhood and career, there’s still plenty of ground to cover. However, there are plenty of suggestions to finding the right work-life balance, including those listed here:

Establish limits and boundaries

Determine for yourself what you are willing or not willing to accept; not doing so makes it more difficult to say “no.”

Create time for yourself

Being good to yourself is the first step in being a good parent, partner, and professional. Look for ways to relax and minimize stress. Doing so will benefit your family and work lives.

Build a support network

Recruit family, friends, colleague, neighbors, etc., to be part of your support “team.” Be prepared by creating contingency and backup plans.

Determine your standards

Letting go of perfectionism means making compromises. Establish standards that are about you and the behaviors and actions you’re going to demand of yourself. For some women, achieving success has meant giving up their original goals and substituting new ones that are still challenging, but that better fit with your current life situation.

Let go of guilt

Guilt is not only a waste of emotional energy, but it can also be debilitating. Don’t allow yourself to become immobilized in the present because you’re dwelling on the past. Use logic to counter-balance guilt and to prevent self-sabotage from disrupting your work/life balance.

The Concord difference

The Concord Medical Group, which is physician-owned and operated, is committed to placing physicians in the situation that allows them to enjoy what they’re doing while also maximizing their personal time. CMG provides physicians with the opportunity to set their schedule – whether it’s full-time or part-time. Concord often works with small community hospitals, which means you’ll be treated as a true team member who’s valued in the community.