Parenting During Residency: Providing Support for Dr Mom and Dr Dad

Abstract

Background and objectives: Parenting during family medicine residency is increasingly common. Relatively little is known about how the competing demands of work and family life affect residents.

Methods: We conducted an exploratory qualitative study of parenting family medicine residents at one program in the Midwest utilizing focus groups to understand residents' perceptions of the positive and negative characteristics of their roles as physicians and parents. We used consensus coding to identify themes in the data and then developed a model to illustrate the relationships among the identified themes.

Results: Competing demands on their time require parenting family medicine residents to often make difficult choices, which result in both positive and negative outcomes for residents, their families, and their residency experience.

Conclusions: Parenting family medicine residents experience numerous conflicts in their concurrent roles of learner, physician, and parent. Parenting-friendly residency training programs would likely offer valuable support for these individuals during this stressful life period.