The Crisis of Part-Time Physicians

Something that came up elsewhere, but for which I was unaware of the magnitude of the problem: according to one unsourced estimate, around 30% of female physicians work part time. A better 2011 estimate in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows 21% of the physician workforce is part-time, with that figure plateauing as of 2015, of which 44% of female physicians worked part-time. Where this starts to get scary is in a recent Association of American Medical Colleges announcement that a slight majority of new med students are female, 50.7% of the overall total. Given that women exit internships into practice in prime reproductive years and are thus more likely to want time off for family, it suggests an upcoming crisis in terms of overall physician hours available: not all physicians are willing to work the same number of hours.