WORK OF FEMALE RURAL DOCTORS

Objectives: To identify the impact of family life on the ways women practice rural medicine and the changes needed to attract women to rural practice. Design: Census of women rural doctors in Victoria in 2000, using a self‐completed postal survey. Setting: General and specialist practice. Subjects: Two hundred and seventy‐one female general practitioners and 31 female specialists practising in Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Area Classifications 3–7. General practitioners are those doctors with a primary medical degree and without additional specialist qualifications. Main outcome measure: Interaction of hours and type of work with family responsibilities. Results: Generalist and specialist women rural doctors carry the main responsibility for family care. This is reflected in the number of hours they work in clinical and non‐clinical professional practice, availability for oncall and hospital work, and preference for the responsibilities of practice partnership or the flexibility of salaried positions. Most of the doctors had established a satisfactory balance between work and family responsibilities, although a substantial number were overworked in order to provide an income for their families or meet the needs of their communities. Thirty‐six percent of female rural general practitioners and 56% of female rural specialists preferred to work fewer hours. Female general practitioners with responsibility for children were more than twice as likely as female general practitioners without children to be in a salaried position and less likely to be a practice partner. The changes needed to attract and retain women in rural practice include a place for everyone in the doctor's family, flexible practice structures, mentoring by women doctors and financial and personal recognition.