Open access to part-time specialist training -- the Swiss experience.
BACKGROUND
Gender shift in the medical profession evokes an increasing demand for innovative work and training curricula. In 1992 a regulation was introduced in Switzerland that permitted part-time specialist training without any eligibility restriction. This survey investigates the extent of part-time specialist training after 10 years.


METHODS
The anonymous data of all 776 physicians who applied for a specialisation diploma in 2001 were analysed with regard to periods of part-time training, gender and specialty. A questionnaire-based survey collected the available part-time training posts in 1503 accredited institutions (96%).


RESULTS
115 (15%) of all applicants, 33% of the female and 6% of the male completed at least one period of part-time training in their curricula. 24% of the accredited institutions offered at least one part-time training position. The majority of these posts is restricted to specialties like psychiatry, paediatric psychiatry, internal medicine, gynaecology, anaesthesia and paediatrics, areas traditionally preferred by women, while other specialties do not offer part-time training positions to a comparable extent.


CONCLUSIONS
Part-time specialty training is well established and more frequently used in Switzerland than in countries of the EU. However, as the distribution of part-time training positions develops very different among specialties, even a liberal access policy is not able to reduce the imbalance in gender distribution amongst the medical specialties.
Heuss
Ludwig T
LT
Department of Gastroenterology, University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland. ltheuss@hin.ch
Haenggeli
Christoph
C
D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010822:Physicians, Women / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012744:Sex Ratio; D013038:Specialization; D013557:Switzerland; D017748:Time Management