title: Commentary: Missing the elephant in my office: recommendations for part-time careers in academic medicine.
abstract: Several recent articles in this journal, including the article by Linzer and colleagues in this issue, discuss and promote the concept of part-time careers in academic medicine as a solution to the need to achieve a work-life balance and to address the changing demographics of academic medicine. The article by Linzer and colleagues presents the consensus of a task force that attempted to address practical considerations for part-time work in academic internal medicine. Missing from these discussions, however, are a consensus on the definition of part-time work, consideration of how such strategies would be available to single parents, how time or resources will be allocated to part-time faculty to participate in professional associations, develop professional networks, and maintain currency in their field, and how part-time work can allow for the development of expertise in research and scholarly activity. Most important, the discussions about the part-time solution do not address the root cause of dissatisfaction and attrition: the ever-increasing and unsustainable workload of full-time faculty. The realization that an academic full-time career requires a commitment of 80 hours per week begs the question of whether part-time faculty would agree to work 40 hours a week for part-time pay. The historical underpinnings of the current situation, the implications of part-time solutions for the academy, and the consequences of choosing part-time work as the primary solution are discussed. Alternative strategies for addressing some of the problems facing full-time faculty are proposed.
authors.affiliation: University of New Mexico School of Medicine, MSC 09-5040, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA. helitzer@salud.unm.edu
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Helitzer
mesh_terms: D002322:Career Mobility; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008019:Life Style; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000145:classification / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010822:Physicians, Women / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce; D016526:Workload