The Development of Best Practice Recommendations to Support the Hiring, Recruitment, and Advancement of Women Physicians in Emergency Medicine.
Women in medicine continue to experience disparities in earnings, promotion, and leadership roles. There are few guidelines in place defining organization-level factors that promote a supportive workplace environment beneficial to women in emergency medicine (EM). We assembled a working group with the goal of developing specific and feasible recommendations to support women's professional development in both community and academic EM settings.



We formed a working group from the leadership of two EM women's organizations, the Academy of Women in Academic Emergency Medicine (AWAEM) and the American Association of Women Emergency Physicians (AAWEP). Through a literature search and discussion, working group members identified four domains where organizational policies and practices supportive of women were needed: 1) global approaches to supporting the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in EM; 2) recruitment, hiring, and compensation of women emergency physicians; 3) supporting development and advancement of women in EM; and 4) physician health and wellness (in the context of pregnancy, childbirth, and maternity leave). Within each of these domains, the working group created an initial set of specific recommendations. The working group then recruited a stakeholder group of EM physician leaders across the country, selecting for diversity in practice setting, geographic location, age, race, and gender. Stakeholders were asked to score and provide feedback on each of the recommendations. Specific recommendations were retained by the working group if they achieved high rates of approval from the stakeholder group for importance and perceived feasibility. Those with >80% agreement on importance and >50% agreement on feasibility were retained. Finally, recommendations were posted in an open online forum (blog) and invited public commentary.



An initial set of 29 potential recommendations was created by the working group. After stakeholder voting and feedback, 16 final recommendations were retained. Recommendations were refined through qualitative comments from stakeholders and blog respondents.



Using a consensus building process that included male and female stakeholders from both academic and community EM settings, we developed recommendations for organizations to implement to create a workplace environment supportive of women in EM that were perceived as acceptable and feasible. This process may serve as a model for other medical specialties to establish clear, discrete organization-level practices aimed at supporting women physicians.
Department of Emergency Medicine, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI.
Esther K
EK
Choo
Ronald O. Perelman Department of Emergency Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY.
Dara
D
Kass
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health, Madison, WI.
Mary
M
Westergaard
Department of Emergency Medicine, Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, El Paso, TX.
Susan H
SH
Watts
Department of Emergency Medicine, Staten Island University Hospital, Staten Island, New York.
Nicole
N
Berwald
Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD.
Linda
L
Regan
Department of Emergency Medicine, Penn State University, Hershey, PA.
Susan B
SB
Promes
Department of Emergency Medicine, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA.
Kathleen J
KJ
Clem
Hofstra Northshore LIJ School of Medicine, North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, NY.|The John Peter Smith Hospital, Fort Worth, TX.
Sandra M
SM
Schneider
Department of Emergency Medicine, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI.
Gloria J
GJ
Kuhn
Department of Emergency Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
Stephanie
S
Abbuhl
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Rochester, NY.
Flavia
F
Nobay
D002322:Career Mobility; D032921:Consensus; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010560:Personnel Selection / Q000379:methods*; D010822:Physicians, Women