Pro bono work and nonmedical volunteerism among U.S. women physicians.
OBJECTIVE
To determine women physicians' rates of pro bono work and nonmedical volunteerism. We examined data from the Women Physician's Health Study (WPHS), a cross-sectional survey conducted in 1993-1994 of 4501 U.S. women physicians aged 30-70 years.


RESULTS
Of this group, 71% participated in either pro bono work (among those participating, a median of 4 hours/week), nonmedical volunteering (2 hours/week), or both. Predictors of pro bono work were subspecialty training, practice site, practice location, on-call nights, work hours, and hours nonmedical volunteering. Predictors of nonmedical volunteering were age, ethnicity, marital status, number of children, religion, practice site, practice location, work hours, political identification, and the performance of pro bono services.


CONCLUSIONS
A substantial majority of women physicians volunteer their time. These data on characteristics of volunteers can help us understand and motivate physicians giving behaviors.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003710:Demography; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006280:Health Workforce; D006801:Humans; D008511:Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D010822:Physicians, Women / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011057:Politics; D011364:Professional Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012067:Religion; D013038:Specialization; D017664:Uncompensated Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D014838:Volunteers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*