To understand how lack of childcare restricts work related travel for physician mothers

I designed a survey to study how lack of childcare restricts work- related travel for physician mothers.

We surveyed 100 physicians who were also mothers in the United States. Our survey results showed that 48% of physician mothers had to withdraw papers and 22 % mothers had to withdraw posters from National Medical conferences due to lack of childcare. 12% skipped residency interviews and 56% skipped residency interview dinner due to lack of child care. 10% skipped fellowship interview and 69% skipped fellowship interview dinner due to lack of childcare. 50% of physician mothers skipped most of a National conference that they had travelled to attend due to lack of childcare. 77% said that they do not attend as many National medical conferences as they would like to, only because of lack of child care. 80% said that they would be able to go to more out of town conferences if they had better childcare options. Of these women 81% were married and 15% were divorced.

At Ohio State we reached out to the GME to discuss these survey results and partnered with an on campus day care, Nisonger Child Care Center, which now provides child care to all residency and fellowship interview candidates who interview at Ohio State. 

Lack of childcare is detrimental to careers of physician mothers. They not only skip residency and fellowship interviews but also skip National conferences. Appropriate childcare at facilities where they interview and onsite childcare at National Conference will empower physician mothers to travel and further their career.