Perceptions of Parental Leave and Parenthood among Program Directors and Residents in Radiation Oncology

Purpose/Objective(s)

Radiation oncology residents (ROR) face a narrow fertility window while completing a demanding training program. Family planning decisions are often impacted by concerns over perceptions of faculty, co-trainees, and future employers. There is limited data objectively defining these perceptions in medical training and none within radiation oncology (RO). We aim to describe the perspectives of RO program directors (PD) and ROR on parental leave and parenthood in training.

Materials/Methods

Contact information was obtained from FRIEDA. Surveys were distributed to all eligible PDs with a request to forward a parallel survey to trainees. Social media links for both surveys were shared on a social media platform. Descriptive statistics were gathered using survey data.

Results

Surveys were completed for 16 PDs including 5 women and 14 parents and 61 ROR including 35 women and 25 parents. As a PD, 14 PDs had pregnant residents in their program. Only 1 PD was unsure if there was a maternity leave policy at their institution, 3 were unsure about paternity leave, and 13 were unsure about fertility services. In comparison, 15 ROR were unsure if there was a maternity leave policy, 20 were unsure about paternity leave, and 34 were unsure about fertility services. 98% of residents and 100% of PDs felt it would be valuable to have formal policies in place. 47% of ROR felt their program was more or much more supportive than others at their institution with 38% feeling as supported and 15% feeling less supported. In contrast, 93% of PDs felt they were more or much more supportive. 22 ROR felt pressured to delay starting a family, most commonly pressure put on themselves followed by faculty and co-residents. 40% of non-parent residents (NPR) would have children if not in medicine with 89% of women ROR expressing concern about declining fertility. Among PDs, 20% felt that parenthood had a negative impact on the overall education of women and man residents. In terms of academic productivity, 40% of PDs felt parenthood had a negative impact on women residents compared to 27% for man residents. Among NPR, 89% felt that parenthood had a negative impact on the overall education of women residents compared to 66% for man residents. Similarly, 100% of NPR felt that parenthood negatively impacted women residents' academic productivity as compared to 71% of man residents.

Conclusion

Within RO, most PDs are aware of parental leave policies at their institution but are less so for fertility services. Residents are less familiar with these policies. Most ROR feel supported by their PDs, however there is a discordance between the level of support noted by ROR and PDs. The perceived negative impact of parenthood is greater for women ROR than men. Additional initiatives should focus on increasing transparency of parental leave policies and supporting parent trainees to ensure they are academically and clinically successful while balancing the important role of parents.