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Hello and welcome to this month's Gynecologic Oncology Journal Podcast.
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I'm David Cohn, the editor-in-chief.
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And today you'll hear our podcasters that are featuring our Editor's Choice article and the accompanying editorial.
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I hope you do enjoy this podcast.
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The article and editorial we'll discuss are available at our homepage, gynecologic oncology-online.net.
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Thank you for listening.
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Hello, and welcome to this month's Gynecologic Oncology Editor's Choice Podcast.
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Today we'll be discussing a paper by Dr.
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Zoon, Chore, and Mills titled Pregnancies and Gynecologic Oncologists, an assessment of pregnancy policies and complications, and the accompanying editorial by Dr.
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Sanders and Walsh titled Pregnancy Complications and Gynecologic Oncologists: A Call to Action to Do Better.
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I am so excited to be hosting the podcast today with some wonderful physicians.
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And I would like to welcome Dr.
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Kelsey Goon, a senior fellow, and Dr.
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Kate Mills, who is an assistant professor both at the University of Chicago, Dr.
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Christine Walsh, who is the gynecologic division director at the University of Colorado, and Dr.
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Brooke Sanders, the Associate Gynecologic Oncology Fellowship Director at Washington University.
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So, first, huge thank you to Dr.
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Goon and Mills and your co-author, Dr.
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Chore, for bringing such an important topic forward.
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Dr.s Walsh and Sanders, your editorial really helped to drive so many points home and to amplify the issue that this is not just a quote, a maternal age thing, end quote.
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I want to start by asking Dr.
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Goon, what motivated you to study pregnancy experiences specifically in gynecologic oncology?
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As many of you are aware, our field has shifted to about 63% female representation in our own society survey.
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How did that change in demographics shape the urgency of this project?
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So my first experience with the topic was actually with a little bit more of a leadership hat than a personal one.
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When I was the chief resident, we had a series of parental and medical leaves, to be honest, to coordinate, and we got pretty deep into rewriting residency level policy.
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So when I arrived at fellowship, the experience of advocating for and working with my peers to establish their leaves, which were each very, very individual, was quite fresh on my mind.
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And then I started fellowship and a couple of our faculty had just finished parental leaves, and then both my co-fellow and I each navigated pregnancies of our own.
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So this topic just became that much closer to home.
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I understand that for sure.
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Dr.
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Mills, is there anything that you'd like to add to that?
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Yeah, you know, uh I was one of those faculty who had recently delivered, and I think having, you know, been through it, and I was thinking that I might try for a second pregnancy, I just was thinking a lot about this subject.
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And, you know, Dr.
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Goon and I were crossing paths and sort of put our heads together and realized that this was subject matter that was really important.
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And honestly, just talking amongst my colleagues around the US just at random meetings and things, people had sort of just voiced their own sort of complications quietly.
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And it became really obvious to me that there was maybe something there that we needed to investigate further.
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So in your study, you had about a 17% response rate.
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And who do you think might be missing from this sample?
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And why do you think more individuals didn't respond?
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But before you answer that, I think that allowing the partners of pregnancy caring respondents to participate was so interesting.
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And what did that add to the perspective?
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Oh, yeah.
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So the partners were certainly interesting, though admittedly their sample size was pretty small.
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First off, the preterm delivery rate for gynex whose partner carried the pregnancy is about 15%, rather than the 25% reported by gynex who carried the pregnancy.
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Almost one-third of our partners took no leave, while about 50% took less than two weeks of leave.
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On the flip side, we did have four partners volunteer that they took two to four weeks away to support their pregnancy-carrying partner for an antipartum complication.
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As far as the respondents go, we're missing the perspective of anyone who wasn't involved in a pregnancy, whether their own or their partners.
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I imagine we're probably also missing out on a number of losses or terminations.
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And from the perspective of responder bias, I think it's possible that we skew towards those who had an extreme experience.
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Load full transcript
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Those are excellent points.
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And I'd like to focus on the preterm delivery rates.
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And I just want to take a moment and remind our audience that all gynecologic oncologists that trained in this country practice obstetrics at one point in our lives, what may seem like a long time ago.
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So even if it was just during residency, these are really shocking numbers.
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And we, from our days of practicing obstetrics, know what the implications of a preterm birth can be.
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Dr.
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Goon, in your study, you found that 25% preterm delivery rate, which is really actually more than double the general US population rate.
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What were your first thoughts when you saw that number?
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I couldn't believe it.
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I honestly rerun the numbers several times because I was convinced it was just a mistake.
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Dr.
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Walsh, when you first read that, what was your immediate reaction?
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Yeah, my immediate reaction was also one of shock.
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So not only was there a 25% preterm delivery rate, but over half of the live bursts actually involved in major complication.
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Dr.
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Mills, which complications surprised you the most?
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And which did you sort of expect going in?
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You know, I wasn't totally surprised as I alluded to.
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I'd had a lot of these sort of secondhand conversations and was expecting that people were going to report some things, but it was crazy to see a lot of it actually come out on paper.
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And I personally had expected that we would see more of the hypertensive sort of placental dysfunction spectrum disorders.
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I'd always seen like my colleagues telling my, you know, pregnant colleagues, like, sit down, put your feet up, like you don't want to get pre-eclampsia and have your placenta fail.
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But it is true we did see that quite prevalent in the study, about 20% nearly, whereas the baseline population is more like 10 to 15%.
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But really that preterm delivery rate was just a complete shock.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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And I do want to get Dr.
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Sanders' thoughts on this.
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But before then, Dr.
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Goon, can you tell our audience how your findings compare to what a similar study found in general surgeons?
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And what do you think are some of the similarities or differences between the two populations?
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In a similar survey study based on American surgeons published in JAMA Surgery in 2021, the preterm delivery rate was 15%.
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Their population was really similar to ours in terms of age, distribution of practice settings, and geography, and about 6% identified as oncologic surgeons.
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They had nearly identical rates of overnight call, hours worked, and hours operating in the third trimester.
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While 6% of our population reported decreasing work hours for pregnancy, nearly 17% of surgeons reported adapting their hours.
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While much is similar, I think the difference in preterm delivery rate that we've already touched on is really stark.
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Either our numbers are wrong, or there's something different about our population that we haven't yet figured out how to capture.
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As we kind of alluded to already, I want to hammer home a little bit that I also think about the MFM counseling that I heard as a resident really emphasizing that the highest risk for preterm delivery is a history of preterm delivery, which means that this is likely to be a compounding issue for anyone thinking about subsequent pregnancies.
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Dr.
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Sanders, in the editorial or Dr.
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Walsh, and I'm really honing in on this preterm delivery rate because that it really is such a stark issue.
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But in the editorial, you raise the question is this really about older maternal age or is it the work environment?
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And you cite, you know, a similar Canadian cohort study that showed preterm rates of about five and a half to seven, eight percent, even in an older population, which is a little bit different than the JAMA surgery article, of course.
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But this is a fourfold gap from the findings in this study.
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What do you think about that?
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So if we round up and consider the preterm birth rate for a singleton pregnancy to be approximately 8 to 10% in the US, again, this rate of 25% is substantially higher than what we would expect.
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While most of the preterm deliveries in this study were late preterm, so between 34 and 37 weeks, we know that even late preterm births can have meaningful consequences for both mother and baby, including longer hospital stays and additional healthcare visits after discharge.
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The median maternal age at the end of pregnancy in this study was 35 years, and 90% of respondents delivered either during fellowship training or within the first seven years of their careers.
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Given the magnitude of the difference in preterm birth rates compared with population
level estimates and the relatively young age of this cohort, I think that these findings suggest that maternal age alone may not explain the increased risk.
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There must be other factors related to either work environment, training, career stage, or other occupational demands that are contributing.
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And I think that this is an area we really need to continue to study.
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Dr.
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Walsh, do you have any other thoughts?
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Yeah, if you look across the literature, the preterm delivery rate is about 4% to 16% globally and about 10% in the United States.
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And Dr.
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Sanders and I referenced this study from Canada because it's a large study that broke down preterm delivery rates by maternal age.
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And as we think about why the preterm labor rate is so much higher in gynecologic oncologists, I think it's important to ascribe that we can't just say that this is maternal age and we need to think critically about how our work environments might be contributing.
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So kind of touching on work environments, I just want to pull the group and ask how many hours you operate in a typical week.
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For me, currently, it's about eight to 10 hours, but right now I have a lot more administrative time.
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When I was a junior faculty member, it was probably closer to 20 to 25 hours a week.
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Dr.
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Goon?
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Yeah, well, I'm a fellow, so it's about 30 to 40 hours a week right now.
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Dr.
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Mills?
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It varies highly.
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You know, sometimes it's more like five to 10 because I do have some protected time as a fellowship PD now, but sometimes it's triple.
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And during my pregnancies, particularly my first, I was definitely closer to the like triple number than to that five to ten.
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Dr.
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Walsh?
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For me, it's 10 hours per week, but then it can increase from there when I add on cases outside of my block time.
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Dr.
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Sanders?
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Usually about 20 to 25 hours a week.
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That is a lot of time cumulatively in the OR.
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That's amazing.
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So the finding that operative time of more than 12 hours per week in the third trimester raised complication risk significantly.
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The odds ratio was almost 1.6.
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It's a bit sobering in that a third of the respondents felt that their
work node negatively impacted their pregnancy.
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I really want to open that up to the to the group here.
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Um, Dr.
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Goon, you're still in fellowship.
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I'm gonna start with you.
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Yeah.
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So I'll acknowledge that the perception of the impact of workload on pregnancy is probably where the findings of our study get much more subjective.
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That said, I think long-hour standing, fasting, strenuous lifting activities, these are all things that have modest, if somewhat inconsistent, correlations with preterm birth in other populations.
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I do wonder how much of the operating component is related to these features, things like, again, prolonged standing or fasting that come with much longer cases.
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A piece of our data that I've really puzzled over is the finding that pregnant trainees who did work more weeks that were greater than 60 hours and also took less leaves than attendings were not any more likely to report that the workload negatively impacted their pregnancy.
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Does this suggest that the nuance is more environment-specific?
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Is it a product of being a couple of years younger during training, your expectations being different during training?
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I don't really think we have the data to dig into that, but it's certainly interesting.
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And then overall, I interpret our findings as emphasizing the need for policies that at least open the possibility of workload modification.
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When we step back and think about the fact that these pregnancies are mostly happening early in a gynack career, I think the way that an institution navigates a pregnancy with a young physician has the potential to either lay the groundwork for a successful long-term relationship or burn bridges at a time when people are already making lots of life changes.
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Excellent points.
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Dr.
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Mills, your thoughts?
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Yeah, I mean, it's multifactorial probably, much to what Dr.
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Goon is saying.
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Maybe levels of stress and like sort of cortisol you have swirling around.
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I I mean, I think about when I was a resident, you know, I was at a program, we didn't take 24-hour calls.
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And even as a fellow, I felt like I was like hustling and really owning things.
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But I do think that sort of like it all ends with me part.
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Um, maybe if you're not the one who's necessarily like moving the patient, you know, from the surgery to
the PACU, but you're sitting there and dealing with the stress of it.
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And another thing that I think, you know, really resounds with me is that, you know, the vast majority of programs anymore are doing some sort of outreach, you know, especially for the younger folks who are hired in, you know, you're gonna be here, you're gonna be there.
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And when you're at an outreach site, I think the built-in support is often far less available and structured as it would be when you're at like your hub.
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So when when we're on campus here and I'm operating, if I need to call a partner, there's probably at least a handful of people who are somewhere in an OR nearby or in their office.
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We've got residents, fellows, you name it.
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If I had a problem, someone would come.
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But when I was out at my off site, you know, an hour and a half away from the main hospital and operating all day long from 7:30 until five, it was just me and a PA, kind of come what may.
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And who was I gonna call?
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Maybe a general surgeon, if I if I had something to ask them to help me with.
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But otherwise, I was really doing the meat and the potatoes of it.
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And I think that potentially is an area much to what Dr.
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Goon is saying, like looking at what you can do to make certain modifications at a time that's like critical to continue to build these really nice relationships in the workplace with the employers.
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I think this is a moment to say, okay, well, if there's one thing we could modify, maybe it's being in isolation where some of that stress factor could perhaps be magnified.
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Very excellent points as we are really working to care for our patients and go to where our patients need us to decrease the financial toxicities and other barriers that impact care.
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No question.
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More and more of us are doing outreach.
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Dr.
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Walsh, anything?
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Any other things to add?
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Yeah, I agree that this is probably multifactorial and our jobs are just very demanding, both physically as well as emotionally.
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And I think we have a culture in our profession of being tough because of the nature of what we do.
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And this tough it-out culture can make it uncomfortable when we need to advocate for our needs.
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So a few minutes ago, we kind of averaged out how many hours we all work in a week, knowing that it can change from when you're a fellow to a junior faculty to more senior, but clearly the five of us averaged way more than 12 hours a week in the operating room.
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And in this study, 60% of the respondents were operating more than 12 hours a week during the third trimester.
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And very few actually reported any work reductions.
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Why do you think formal accommodations are so rare, even in academic settings?
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Dr.
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Goon?
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So only 5% of our respondents reported having access to an institutional policy for work hour restriction.
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I do imagine that a large piece of this is also cultural in terms of wanting to maximize maybe time away after a delivery and therefore not wanting to impose on colleagues or invoke leave time a minute earlier than necessary.
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You know, of the three pregnancy-related leaves that I coordinated as a resident and in thinking of the experience of myself and my co-fellow recently, I'm pretty comfortable saying that all of us almost universally focused on maximizing time with our newborn at the expense of trying to push harder towards the end of pregnancy.
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And then from a trainee perspective, you know, you add in thoughts about your case numbers and your competencies, and you're like trying to weigh what it might mean for your time in training if you start to miss portions of cases before you even start racking up your days of leave.
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It's, you know, a lot going on in the head.
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The magic of policy, I think, is that it can take the onus off of a pregnant individual from having to ask for something that's actually pretty crucial to their well-being.
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The example that really comes to mind for me, again, from my residency experience, was putting a firm gestational age and postpartum time limitation around taking overnight call.
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And I was somewhere that took a 24-hour call.
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Once this policy existed in writing, the puzzle of rearranging call was actually like easier to solve than we expected.
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And because the policy existed, trainees weren't having to negotiate with their peers or their near peers, and we received less grumbling from an administrative side from people who were not engaging in in their own pregnancies and training because it was just accepted as a this is how we do things now.
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So, Dr.
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Walsh, I'm going to put you on the spot.
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And as a leader at your institution, what are your thoughts about this?
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Well, this paper feels like a real wake-up call.
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I think over the last decade, our society has started to address the problem of
provider burnout and addressing the need of gynecologic oncologies during pregnancy feels like a natural extension of that work.
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I agree with Dr.
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Goon about the magic of putting a policy in place, a policies in writing, it's transparent, it puts everybody on the same page.
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And uh, we actually did some of this work at the University of Colorado when Dr.
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Sanders was a fellow with us.
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And so I looked back at that document, and that is from 2023.
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And at that point, we indicated that work accommodations would begin for fellows at 36 weeks gestation, unless earlier accommodations were recommended.
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And in light of this current paper, I think we have to go back and take a look at that and possibly make revisions to that policy.
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And I appreciate that this paper that we're talking about today provides us with some concrete recommendations from the American College of Surgeons that we can all consider implementing at our own institutions.
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I will unabashedly admit that before reading this paper, I was not aware of the ACS guidelines.
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We've already transitioned away from making people make up for or front load call for the most part, but I think that this still happens for many of us, as been stated earlier, this feeling of obligation.
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We do have longer parental leave allowances, primarily for faculty, but you can definitely argue that it's not long enough for our trainees for all the reasons that Dr.
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Goon just mentioned.
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At my institution, we have not routinely modified OR schedules and cases, but we've honored requests when surgeons have asked for them.
00:18:54.559 --> 00:18:59.599
And to the group, are there any best practices at your institution that you'd like to share?
00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:00.799
I'm going to start with you, Dr.
00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:01.279
Goon.
00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:01.920
Yeah.
00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:06.079
So as a trainee, you know, my perspective is a little bit different than the others on this call.
00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:16.880
I'm fortunate that at my dual-site training program, my clinical co-fellow and I are actually, we run two completely separate and independent services, and in that we're not interdependent on each other for calls.
00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:19.759
So when one of us goes out, it really doesn't impact the other one.
00:19:19.839 --> 00:19:22.000
It doesn't all automatically fall on their plate.
00:19:22.319 --> 00:19:22.559
Dr.
00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:23.359
Mills?
00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:35.839
Yeah, I mean, I think there are some incredible leave policies here at U Chicago, particularly for the faculty, having fully paid 12
weeks, both for, you know, if you're the caring partner versus if your partner delivered.
00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:47.920
I've had colleagues who were able to then stack basically kind of two three-month maternity leaves to base paternity maternity leaves to allow like their baby to basically not have to be in daycare right away.
00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:50.559
And there's been some really nice flexibility with that.
00:19:50.960 --> 00:20:01.279
You know, departments are allowed to approach some of this with some individuality, but our department hasn't routinely asked for anybody to make up calls or payback time when they're pregnant.
00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:07.759
I was basically told sort of like the policy was I provided call during the nine months of the year that I was present.
00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:10.480
We also have a really nice, and I'll point this out.
00:20:10.559 --> 00:20:13.359
I know we didn't really, we couldn't really touch on lactation in the survey.
00:20:13.759 --> 00:20:21.119
You know, at some point you have to stop asking questions, but we have a very unique lactation provision here at U of C that I think is really great.
00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:28.640
And it basically adjusts your work RVU targets to be reduced by about 5% during the nine months when you come back from your leave.
00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:30.880
And it includes a block in your clinic.
00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:32.880
And it's just it's really nice.
00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:37.039
You know, to what everyone's been talking about, you have this policy in place and you're empowered to use it.
00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:42.480
You go sit down in your office and you pump and you don't feel like you're really, really far behind.
00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:50.240
And I do think it helped me, you know, this second time around, feel like really empowered to keep going pumping all the way to that full one year mark.
00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:56.480
But yeah, I I think like many places, we don't have like a super formal in writing.
00:20:56.559 --> 00:21:04.400
I just found that like my partners were saying, just call me, like, let's do these cases together, like, you know, don't do this call, I'll take this weekend.
00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:06.079
But again, more informal.
00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:18.880
Yeah, we have a similar lactation policy with time and an RVU modification for a year and even up to 24 months because of the recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics regarding lactation and breastfeeding.
00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:19.359
Dr.
00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:20.559
Walsh, any additions?
00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:28.960
Yeah, we've had faculty and fellows out on parental leaves in the last couple of years, and our division has been generally supportive.
00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:34.960
Most have taken two months off after delivery, and that's both maternity and paternity leaves.
00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:38.480
And some of our faculty have chosen to take even longer leaves of three
months.
00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:41.119
And the leaves don't have to be consecutively taken.
00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:47.200
So sometimes the provider will take a month off, come back to work, and then take another month off when their partner goes back to work.
00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:55.920
So I feel fortunate that our group has been able to accommodate these leaves and time offer appointments, and we've been able to absorb the extra work.
00:21:56.319 --> 00:21:57.039
That's awesome.
00:21:57.440 --> 00:21:57.680
Dr.
00:21:57.759 --> 00:21:59.759
Sanders, yeah, I agree with what's been said.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:08.559
Said, and in terms of trainees, I also try to encourage trainees to work with their colleagues to limit their call after they also return to work.
00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:12.799
So I know that call obviously adds sleepless nights, but so does having a new infant.
00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:19.599
And it sort of seems like anecdotally, when a lot of folks are going back to work, is sort of when we quote unquote say the infant wakes up.
00:22:19.759 --> 00:22:26.799
So not only are you then getting back into the call pool, but then you're also having to care for this infant that uh seemingly doesn't want to sleep.
00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:34.400
So I do um again encourage trainees and also faculty to give themselves a little bit of time to readjust before taking on a full clinical workload.
00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:36.079
Thank you all for sharing.
00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:38.799
I want to get back to the topic of making up call.
00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:39.359
Uh, Dr.
00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:40.079
Goon and Dr.
00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:50.880
Mills, you were very candid that accommodating one person's pregnancy may or may not affect the whole team's call burden, especially for other trainees, junior faculty, or residents for that matter.
00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:58.720
How should programs think about that trade-off and instead of just avoiding it or maybe making folks make up the call, even if policies say otherwise?
00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:01.839
Again, we all feel very irresponsible for our teams and our partners.
00:23:02.079 --> 00:23:02.319
Dr.
00:23:02.480 --> 00:23:03.839
Goon, I'd like to start with you.
00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:13.200
As the only trainee in our podcast today, your survey reported that 72% of trainees took less than eight weeks off versus 27% of the attendings.
00:23:13.359 --> 00:23:17.920
Is this a training culture problem, a policy problem, or both?
00:23:18.319 --> 00:23:23.039
You know, it's probably both, as with most things we've been talking about today that are multifactorial.
00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:25.759
I suspect a good piece of it is policy related.
00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:37.599
I will also say that, you know, ABOG more recently updated their leave policy for trainees and that a number of the pregnancies that were captured in our survey occurred before that that change went into place.
00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:46.240
But I think some of it's probably cultural too, more from an aspect, I think, of trainees feeling averse to extending their training as a result of taking longer leave.
00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:48.400
But the time has to come from somewhere, right?
00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:51.920
And we have to graduate as competent gynecologic oncologists.
00:23:52.079 --> 00:23:58.079
So I think perhaps normalizing delayed graduation just to take the stigma away from it may be a reasonable first step.
00:23:58.400 --> 00:24:02.640
And I think it's definitely one that's worth considering, I think, on an individual basis.
00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:04.240
As you mentioned, Dr.
00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:07.920
Goon, A Bog updated their leave policy in 2020.
00:24:08.079 --> 00:24:15.359
But given that most of the pregnancies by the survey participants predated that change, do you have any sense of whether things have actually improved since then?
00:24:15.519 --> 00:24:15.759
Dr.
00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:16.880
Mills, what do you think?
00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:18.960
I mean, obviously it's hard to say.
00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:22.799
We aren't like walking around being like, you were a fellow who then had a baby.
00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:26.400
Like that would be you'd probably be able to figure out who those people are pretty fast.
00:24:26.559 --> 00:24:28.960
But I think it's just the normalization of it.
00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:41.599
You know, I have heard more and more people saying, like, you know, I'm actually graduating from fellowship on this date, which I know as a fellowship PD is not exactly in line with when you might expect based on a traditional calendar.
00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:46.880
And so I think perhaps maybe it's both like trainees are feeling empowered to do it.
00:24:47.119 --> 00:24:56.640
But I think also you're seeing folks who are in that fellowship PD hat saying, like, I'm going to just tell my fellow it's fine.
00:24:56.960 --> 00:24:58.240
Take the time you need.
00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:01.599
I'm gonna tell you in 10 years, you won't even remember this.
00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:08.799
It will be the tiniest little blip and wherever you're headed next won't know or care for that matter.
00:25:09.119 --> 00:25:18.480
If you graduated on this date or six weeks later, I think it's just important that we recognize that that time can sometimes need to be longer.
00:25:18.720 --> 00:25:19.680
And that's okay.
00:25:19.839 --> 00:25:36.240
But we want people to come out both competent but also well and healthy and complete so that when they start their job as an attending or faculty or wherever they end up, they're in a good state of mind and they're not just like scrambling trying to make this happen.
00:25:36.559 --> 00:25:38.400
Yeah, I mean, I really couldn't agree more.
00:25:38.559 --> 00:25:50.000
A month, six weeks can seem like such an eternity when you're in the moment, but in the grand scheme of the marathon that is our careers, and that these are such
important, monumentous moments for all of us.
00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:53.680
It really is, like you said, just a blip on the radar screen.
00:25:53.920 --> 00:26:02.480
While there have been many sobering comments and findings from this paper tonight, I do want to touch upon an experience that respondents had after a pregnancy loss.
00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:10.720
84% of the respondents took no time away after a pregnancy loss, and only 40% indicated that their colleagues supported their time away.
00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:14.319
33% said that their leadership supported their time.
00:26:14.559 --> 00:26:21.759
What would meaningful support after a loss actually look like as we think about even privacy and disclosure of that pregnancy at that time?
00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:25.279
From these responses, it really seems like colleagues were aware.
00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:25.680
Dr.
00:26:25.839 --> 00:26:26.559
Goon, Dr.
00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:27.920
Mills, what thoughts do you have?
00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:30.400
So I think loss is really complicated.
00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:37.200
And I think there's probably a great deal of losses that we didn't necessarily capture, and we've talked about that a little bit already.
00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:40.720
But in our study, about a quarter didn't want to disclose.
00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:42.400
And that's really meaningful.
00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:56.160
And that also might mean that there are probably many people who, when the survey went out, skimmed it really quick, didn't really think we wanted to capture those or whatever else, or didn't really feel comfortable for fear of identification or, you know, I don't know.
00:26:56.400 --> 00:27:08.640
But I just wonder how often when people are having a loss and they're not talking about it for whatever the reason, you know, shame, anger, grief, et cetera, that they'd rather not have to disclose it to anybody that they work with.
00:27:09.039 --> 00:27:22.000
And I also think, you know, sometimes we could project our own beliefs onto others and say, like, you know, there could be some signaling that a loss doesn't like require leave or sick time, maybe unintentionally, right?
00:27:22.319 --> 00:27:28.880
These are are rough periods when you go through a loss for whatever the reason and the emotions can be widely variable from person to person.
00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:36.640
I think just there can be the option, probably for many people to feel empowered to even just use a little bit of their sick time.
00:27:36.960 --> 00:27:43.200
You know, I I'll come right out and say, as my own experience, I I did suffer on a miscarriage with my first pregnancy.
00:27:43.279 --> 00:27:45.759
I was devastated and I told nobody.
00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:48.960
I just didn't want to even have to cross that bridge.
00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:52.559
And I don't now looking back at it, I don't know why.
00:27:52.720 --> 00:27:57.599
I don't know why I didn't feel like I could go to somebody and just be like, I had this miscarriage, I'm totally devastated.
00:27:57.839 --> 00:28:01.599
I just need more than like this weekend and come back.
00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:02.880
Like I just need a little time.
00:28:03.119 --> 00:28:05.920
But I I didn't feel like I could for whatever the reason.
00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:16.559
And I I hope that maybe just by people talking about normalizing you, you know, using leave as needed, even if it's not for a live birth, like people will feel empowered to do so.
00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:17.200
Dr.
00:28:17.359 --> 00:28:19.440
Mills, thank you so much for sharing that.
00:28:19.599 --> 00:28:21.759
I think that's really a very important message.
00:28:21.839 --> 00:28:30.079
And it's important for us as attendings to share those kinds of things so other people feel more comfortable and safe in a space to talk about it.
00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:30.559
Dr.
00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:32.559
Goon, do you have anything to add?
00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:35.039
Yeah, just a couple short things.
00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:42.960
I think my first takeaway is that I wouldn't want to put everyone into a universal bucket for how to process the grief that comes with the loss.
00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:49.039
I think some people would prefer business as you as usual or somewhat close to usual, and I think others need time.
00:28:49.359 --> 00:28:58.559
My ideal world would probably manage leave after loss, honestly, similar to any other type of bodily injury, which admittedly should also be afforded a lot of privacy.
00:28:58.880 --> 00:28:59.440
100%.
00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:01.279
I completely agree.
00:29:01.519 --> 00:29:08.640
We do have to create space for individuals and privacy to navigate these difficult situations as they feel like they need to.
00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:14.319
While this is so important, I do want to pivot a little bit because our time is limited to talk about solutions.
00:29:14.559 --> 00:29:21.039
But before we do that, 62% of respondents delayed childbearing for training and three-quarters regretted it.
00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:24.799
I know that we waited to start our family until after I finished my fellowship.
00:29:25.039 --> 00:29:28.720
What do program directors most need to hear from that statistic?
00:29:28.799 --> 00:29:29.680
And I'm going to ask Dr.
00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:30.480
Walsh and Dr.
00:29:30.559 --> 00:29:35.039
Sanders to address this in their roles as division director and associate program directors.
00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:35.440
Dr.
00:29:35.519 --> 00:29:36.799
Walsh, let's start with you.
00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:42.160
So, like you, I also waited to start my family until after I finished my fellowship.
00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:44.960
And I think that was really common in our era.
00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:49.200
It seems like this might be shifting where more trainees are now pursuing parenthood.
00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:54.000
And we mentioned in the editorial, the road to becoming a
gynecologic oncologist is a long one.
00:29:54.079 --> 00:29:58.480
And it's difficult to be at about 33 years old at the end of training.
00:29:58.640 --> 00:30:04.000
And so there really is no perfect time to start a family when you are on this on this track.
00:30:04.240 --> 00:30:13.279
And it's inevitable that a division director or a fellowship program director is going to have a junior faculty member or a fellow come to them with news of a pregnancy.
00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:20.400
And I think this article points out really the importance of having a policy in place in order to provide the needed support.
00:30:20.720 --> 00:30:21.039
Dr.
00:30:21.119 --> 00:30:21.759
Sanders?
00:30:22.319 --> 00:30:23.279
Yeah, I agree with Dr.
00:30:23.359 --> 00:30:23.920
Walsh.
00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:27.920
And, you know, we're seeing that our trainees and colleagues are coming to us with news of a pregnancy.
00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:35.440
And you can see that they're actually almost nervous to oftentimes tell their program directors and faculty or partners when they're pregnant.
00:30:35.599 --> 00:30:39.359
So I think it's really important that we let our trainees know that we really can work together.
00:30:39.599 --> 00:30:42.640
We can optimize both their training and their pregnancy outcomes.
00:30:42.799 --> 00:30:47.680
And while, you know, words are important, I think that really showing what we mean speaks volumes.
00:30:47.759 --> 00:30:50.559
And I feel that in my own experience, and I'm not just saying this because Dr.
00:30:50.640 --> 00:30:57.359
Walsh is also with us, but I really was supported, you know, before, during, and after the birth of my own child in fellowship.
00:30:57.519 --> 00:31:00.880
And so I hope that my experience becomes more of the rule than the exception.
00:31:01.039 --> 00:31:11.519
I also hope that if we repeated this study in another 10 years, we would hopefully see that there are going to be fewer folks who felt that they needed to delay their childbearing and even fewer that regretted that.
00:31:11.839 --> 00:31:12.079
Dr.
00:31:12.240 --> 00:31:14.079
Mills, in your paper, you and Dr.
00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:19.039
Goon lay out four specific recommendations modeled on the American College of Surgeons guidelines.
00:31:19.200 --> 00:31:22.640
Which one do you think is most feasible to implement in the next year?
00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:24.880
And which one might be the heaviest lift?
00:31:25.200 --> 00:31:32.480
Well, I think one of the most feasible realistically is that Gyneunks shouldn't be penalized from promotion trajectories, progression.
00:31:32.720 --> 00:31:40.960
And I think that's one that current leadership could really like take to heart and latch onto because it doesn't really cost them anything, right?
00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:48.720
You aren't looking to hire a locums person to cover for three months or, you know, find a way to keep their salary support going or something.
00:31:48.960 --> 00:31:56.720
This is just recognizing that their contributions that they've made and will make when they come back are not somehow less by taking a parental leave.
00:31:57.039 --> 00:31:57.279
Dr.
00:31:57.440 --> 00:31:57.920
Goon?
00:31:58.400 --> 00:32:06.640
Yeah, on the flip side of that, I think in terms of biggest lifts, things like compensation and eliminating call makeup are gonna take the most effort.
00:32:06.880 --> 00:32:12.480
To some degree, it's you know, it's a resource management game and you can't just draft more time and money out of the ether.
00:32:12.960 --> 00:32:15.440
As a chair, I completely understand that.
00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:20.319
But talking about our society, what role should SGO itself play here?
00:32:20.480 --> 00:32:23.359
You know, is this a job for society level guidelines?
00:32:23.599 --> 00:32:26.160
Do we leave it to our individual institutions?
00:32:26.559 --> 00:32:30.799
Both we've talked about the importance of having policies in place for this.
00:32:31.039 --> 00:32:31.359
Dr.
00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:34.400
Walsh, I'm gonna put you on the spot here and start with you.
00:32:34.799 --> 00:32:40.799
Yeah, so you know, the question of whether SGO should play a role is a really great one.
00:32:41.039 --> 00:32:47.359
I think that different programs and different practices are probably going to approach this differently.
00:32:47.440 --> 00:32:54.559
There will be nuances to how this is implemented, but I think guidance from SGO could be really valuable.
00:32:55.039 --> 00:32:55.759
I agree.
00:32:56.079 --> 00:32:56.400
Dr.
00:32:56.480 --> 00:32:59.279
Sanders, I'm gonna ask you to put your associate PD hat on.
00:32:59.359 --> 00:33:02.319
And I think a lot of fellowships are maybe a little bit different than Dr.
00:33:02.480 --> 00:33:07.759
Goon's experience, where if you have a small fellowship, the two fellows are interrelated.
00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:12.480
How does a program manage when one of two clinical fellows takes time off?
00:33:12.640 --> 00:33:18.400
Small fellowships or even small practices don't have the redundancy or slack that larger departments do.
00:33:18.640 --> 00:33:23.119
What would you say are answer or suggestions for a two-fellow program?
00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:34.640
I think if a program has such little redundancy that one fellow being away makes it impossible to maintain adequate patient care, I think it's also an opportunity to reconsider how the system is functioning.
00:33:34.880 --> 00:33:41.279
So in a two-fellow program, this requires a little bit more planning and creativity, but life happens during fellowship as we know.
00:33:41.359 --> 00:33:48.960
So whether that's the birth of a child or a cancer diagnosis of a co-fellow or a death in the family or another unexpected major life event.
00:33:49.119 --> 00:33:51.279
So this isn't just isolated to a birth.
00:33:51.519 --> 00:33:56.160
The answer can't just be that the fellow who remains simply absorbs the
additional workload indefinitely.
00:33:56.319 --> 00:34:07.359
I think that programs need to be creative and adaptable, and whether that means leveraging faculty or redistributing clinical responsibilities, adjusting rotations, or temporarily modifying schedules.
00:34:07.519 --> 00:34:14.239
I think that we can continue to provide excellent patient care and meaningful education while also supporting our trainees through major personal events.
00:34:14.559 --> 00:34:15.360
That's great.
00:34:15.599 --> 00:34:17.039
That's the ideal world.
00:34:17.280 --> 00:34:19.039
Any other thoughts from the panel?
00:34:19.679 --> 00:34:20.239
I think Dr.
00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:21.679
Sanders summed it up pretty well.
00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:22.880
I would agree.
00:34:23.119 --> 00:34:23.599
All right.
00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:29.039
So the editorial points out financial disincentives, which we haven't discussed yet.
00:34:29.199 --> 00:34:35.840
And while this doesn't apply to the training necessarily, it can most certainly impact the faculty or those in private practice.
00:34:36.079 --> 00:34:39.760
Most places do have an RVU-based compensation model.
00:34:39.920 --> 00:34:41.199
So how do we account for this?
00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:50.239
The American College of Surgeons specifically highlights that adaptations to third trimester work hours and leave after delivery should not be penalizing the surgeon.
00:34:50.480 --> 00:34:52.239
What happens at your home institutions?
00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:52.719
Dr.
00:34:52.800 --> 00:34:53.519
Walsh?
00:34:54.239 --> 00:35:03.519
So we do prorate work RVU targets to account for time off from work, whether it's for parental leave or being out sick for some other reason.
00:35:03.840 --> 00:35:08.480
And so our individual providers that take leave are not individually penalized.
00:35:08.719 --> 00:35:16.000
But as a group, if we have a lot of providers out in one fiscal year, it can have an impact on the finances of the entire division.
00:35:16.159 --> 00:35:19.039
And it could impact end-of-year incentives.
00:35:19.360 --> 00:35:25.119
Yeah, these are the unfortunate realities of medicine nowadays, for sure.
00:35:25.360 --> 00:35:28.000
The editorial, and this is an important issue.
00:35:28.159 --> 00:35:33.360
I don't mean to cut finances and productivity off, but there's a lot of other things I want us to talk about today.
00:35:33.599 --> 00:35:41.760
So the editorial ends by asking gynecologic oncologists directly, do we have the courage to champion this call to action?
00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:46.960
I would like to ask the panel, what would it look like to actually show up and take this on?
00:35:47.199 --> 00:35:55.840
If a division chief, a fellowship director, a department, a practice leader who is listening today could only do one thing, what would you want it to be?
00:35:56.079 --> 00:35:56.400
Dr.
00:35:56.559 --> 00:35:57.039
Goon?
00:35:57.840 --> 00:36:02.960
I think in the absence of protective
policy, I would ask for help with problem solving.
00:36:03.119 --> 00:36:17.679
You know, is it the flexibility to move an OR or even one or two clinic appointments around that could honestly be the difference between a program that supports you and a program that says you need to fit everything about your life into the rigidity of this job as it stands right now.
00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:21.360
As a trainee, you honestly don't always have this type of autonomy.
00:36:21.440 --> 00:36:25.360
So even being given even a small dose of it can go a really long way.
00:36:25.760 --> 00:36:26.079
Dr.
00:36:26.239 --> 00:36:26.960
Mills.
00:36:27.599 --> 00:36:31.440
I would probably vote for leadership flexibility.
00:36:31.679 --> 00:36:42.719
So recognizing that, of course, written policy is the best, but also understanding that those policies can maybe not always be like one size fits all.
00:36:42.960 --> 00:36:46.719
So, you know, looking at the person in front of you and saying, like, what do they really need?
00:36:46.800 --> 00:36:47.920
Where can I meet them?
00:36:48.079 --> 00:36:50.800
Where, you know, where we're at right now.
00:36:50.960 --> 00:36:59.599
You know, I think sometimes even just saying, like, you know, the junior, the junior faculty is in your office saying, hey, I'm pregnant.
00:36:59.760 --> 00:37:01.840
Maybe I've already had a preterm delivery.
00:37:01.920 --> 00:37:04.320
Like, can you help me figure out how we're gonna do this?
00:37:04.559 --> 00:37:09.440
And feeling like, yeah, actually, I've looked through all the OR cases and, you know, I'm gonna scrub them with you.
00:37:09.599 --> 00:37:12.239
Or we're splitting them up between me and these other partners.
00:37:12.320 --> 00:37:17.920
And I think those small little things outside of like written formal policy go a long way.
00:37:18.480 --> 00:37:21.039
So actions speak louder than words.
00:37:21.360 --> 00:37:21.679
Dr.
00:37:21.760 --> 00:37:23.360
Sanders, any other thoughts?
00:37:23.760 --> 00:37:24.639
I totally agree with Dr.
00:37:24.719 --> 00:37:25.119
Mills.
00:37:25.199 --> 00:37:27.519
I was just gonna say, show your support, don't just say it.
00:37:27.679 --> 00:37:43.519
So, you know, I would call your trainee and wish them a health, healthy delivery, check in with them before their first big case back from leave just to see how they're feeling about returning to the OR, or you know, close the abdomen for them, even as a faculty after a long case so that the fellow could go step away and express milk.
00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:51.840
So I think sometimes again, showing your support is just as simple as anticipating what your trainee may need and making it easier for them so they don't have to ask.
00:37:52.239 --> 00:37:52.559
Dr.
00:37:52.719 --> 00:37:54.559
Walsh, any other thoughts?
00:37:54.960 --> 00:37:57.840
Yeah, I agree with all of those comments.
00:37:58.000 --> 00:38:01.920
I agree that it's probably not a one-size-fits-all solution.
00:38:02.159 --> 00:38:04.159
Everyone's going to have different needs.
00:38:04.320 --> 00:38:15.920
I would support having a menu of options available for the guy nonkise's pregnant, and then they can decide what feels right to them and at what point they would like to institute work accommodations during the third trimester.
00:38:16.079 --> 00:38:22.400
And the article does a really nice job of providing some examples of how some of our colleagues were supported.
00:38:22.559 --> 00:38:36.719
And so that could include work hour reductions, decreased surgical volume or intensity of cases, transitioning to an exclusively ambulatory clinic role, pausing on the acceptance of new patients, or reducing the number of hours work per week.
00:38:36.880 --> 00:38:43.199
But most importantly, I think it's important that the leadership and the members of the practice of the program show their support.
00:38:43.920 --> 00:38:46.320
Before we wrap up, I'd like to ask Dr.
00:38:46.400 --> 00:38:50.239
Goon and Mills, what's the next study you'd want to do here?
00:38:50.480 --> 00:38:56.960
Should we survey reintegration to work after leave, lactation support, RVU models, or other impacts?
00:38:57.119 --> 00:38:57.440
Dr.
00:38:57.519 --> 00:38:58.159
Goon?
00:38:58.559 --> 00:39:00.880
You know, we've thrown around all of those topics.
00:39:01.039 --> 00:39:06.159
I personally would love to dig deeper into the reintegration piece, in part because I think as Dr.
00:39:06.239 --> 00:39:13.760
Sanders mentioned earlier, it extends beyond pregnancy to other ways that our life might impact our careers as gynecologic oncologists.
00:39:13.920 --> 00:39:19.679
And in part because I think there's also probably a number of hidden best practices that have yet to be told.
00:39:20.079 --> 00:39:20.559
So true.
00:39:20.800 --> 00:39:21.039
Dr.
00:39:21.119 --> 00:39:21.679
Mills?
00:39:21.920 --> 00:39:23.280
Yeah, I completely agree.
00:39:23.440 --> 00:39:23.679
Dr.
00:39:23.840 --> 00:39:28.719
Goon and I have obviously like talked about this in detail about like how we would follow this up.
00:39:28.880 --> 00:39:32.559
And both of us having done the reintegration, it's really tough.
00:39:32.719 --> 00:39:33.840
It's really fragile.
00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:42.159
I think it's one of those times that you are coming back to work and you're trying to reintegrate into your job, but you're also a different person than you were when you left it.
00:39:42.239 --> 00:39:47.360
And the things that maybe you thought were so important even six months ago are now 180 different.
00:39:47.519 --> 00:40:01.599
So I think it would also be interesting to look into, you know, what roles or or how the impact of different leadership styles on a reintegrating, you know, return from leave provider, what's best practices, right?
00:40:01.679 --> 00:40:05.199
Because I think it's sort of left to the individual to know.
00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:09.920
And perhaps we're not helping the reintegrating process as much as we could be.
00:40:10.239 --> 00:40:14.639
Yeah, I like that idea of reintegration being the first place to think about next.
00:40:14.719 --> 00:40:16.719
It's so important because you're so right.
00:40:16.800 --> 00:40:18.960
You are not the same person when you come back.
00:40:19.360 --> 00:40:23.280
I really want to thank all of you for joining me for this really important discussion.
00:40:23.360 --> 00:40:31.519
And I want to finish a line from the editorial, and I kind of alluded to this earlier, and I'm just going to quote it because it's so well written.
00:40:31.679 --> 00:40:42.239
As gynecologic oncologists, do we really have the courage to champion this call to action and to give our colleagues the time and support needed for pregnancy, postpartum, and other health needs?
00:40:42.480 --> 00:40:50.719
I would say that to those of us who are further along in our careers, that really we need to lead this effort and give voice to our younger colleagues.
00:40:50.960 --> 00:40:55.119
Just because this might not have been our experience doesn't mean that it should be theirs.
00:40:55.360 --> 00:40:56.800
So thank you all so much.
00:40:56.960 --> 00:40:59.360
I was honored to moderate this with you today.
00:40:59.440 --> 00:41:04.559
And please, let's not allow this to be the end of this conversation, but the beginning of our action.
00:41:06.880 --> 00:41:10.719
My thanks to our podcasters and all of our guests for joining us today.
00:41:10.960 --> 00:41:17.199
The article and editorial we've discussed are available at gynecologic oncology online.net.
00:41:17.440 --> 00:41:23.440
And you can access our podcast at the journal's homepage, Apple iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.
00:41:23.679 --> 00:41:25.679
Thank you for listening and be well.