The Creation and Efforts of a Parental Task Force for Surgical Trainees

Abstract

Rationale and objections: Surgery training often coincides with the family planning and childbearing stages of the surgeon's life. This has become especially impactful with the sharp increase in female surgical trainees.

Materials and methods: To address important issues around family planning, our surgical department created a task force to make recommendations and create a framework as to how the department can be most supportive to surgery trainees who wish to become parents during training.

Results and conclusion: This article describes the efforts of the task force, which include the creation of a departmental parental handbook, a family advocacy program and a novel meeting structure designed to facilitate the successful transition to and from parental leave status.

Keywords: Parental; advocacy; family planning; maternity leave; surgery.