TY - JOUR
T1 - Operationalising the family-friendly medical workplace and the development of FAM-MED, a family-friendly self-audit tool for medical systems : a Delphi consensus
AU - Peisah, Carmelle
AU - Sheppard, Adrianna
AU - Benbow, Susan Mary
AU - Loughran-Fowlds, Alison
AU - Grayson, Susan
AU - Gunton, Jenny E.
AU - Kataria, Anuradha
AU - Lai, Rosalyn
AU - Lele, Kiran
AU - Quadrio, Carolyn
AU - Wright, Danette
AU - McLean, Loyola
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.
PY - 2023/6
Y1 - 2023/6
N2 - Globally, the call for Family-Friendly (FF) workplaces is loud and clear. However, this call is inaudible in medical workplaces, despite both well-established benefits of FF workplaces across businesses and well-known effects of work-family conflict on the well-being and practice of doctors. We aimed to use the Delphi consensus methodology to: (i) operationalise the Family-Friendly medical workplace and (ii) develop a Family-Friendly Self-Audit tool for medical workplaces. The expert medical Delphi panel was deliberatively recruited to capture a breadth of professional, personal, and academic expertise, diversity of age (35-81), life stage, family contexts and lived experience of dual commitments to work and family, and diversity of work settings and positions. Results reflected the inclusive and dynamic nature of the doctor's family and the need to adopt a family life cycle approach to FF medical workplaces. Key processes for implementation include holding firms to zero discrimination; flexibility and openness to dialogue and feedback; and a mutual commitment between the doctor and the department lead to best meet the doctor's individualised needs while still ensuring optimal patient care and team support and cohesion. We hypothesise that the Department Head may be the key to implementation but recognise the workforce constraints to realising these aspirational systemic shifts. It is time we acknowledge that doctors have families, to narrow the gap between identifying as a partner, mother, father, daughter, son, grandparent, and identifying as a doctor. We affirm the right to be both good doctors and good family members.
AB - Globally, the call for Family-Friendly (FF) workplaces is loud and clear. However, this call is inaudible in medical workplaces, despite both well-established benefits of FF workplaces across businesses and well-known effects of work-family conflict on the well-being and practice of doctors. We aimed to use the Delphi consensus methodology to: (i) operationalise the Family-Friendly medical workplace and (ii) develop a Family-Friendly Self-Audit tool for medical workplaces. The expert medical Delphi panel was deliberatively recruited to capture a breadth of professional, personal, and academic expertise, diversity of age (35-81), life stage, family contexts and lived experience of dual commitments to work and family, and diversity of work settings and positions. Results reflected the inclusive and dynamic nature of the doctor's family and the need to adopt a family life cycle approach to FF medical workplaces. Key processes for implementation include holding firms to zero discrimination; flexibility and openness to dialogue and feedback; and a mutual commitment between the doctor and the department lead to best meet the doctor's individualised needs while still ensuring optimal patient care and team support and cohesion. We hypothesise that the Department Head may be the key to implementation but recognise the workforce constraints to realising these aspirational systemic shifts. It is time we acknowledge that doctors have families, to narrow the gap between identifying as a partner, mother, father, daughter, son, grandparent, and identifying as a doctor. We affirm the right to be both good doctors and good family members.
UR - https://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:78576
U2 - 10.3390/healthcare11121679
DO - 10.3390/healthcare11121679
M3 - Article
SN - 2227-9032
VL - 11
JO - Healthcare
JF - Healthcare
IS - 12
M1 - 1679
ER -