Career problems of women in medicine

Medicine is one of the sacred and respected professions of the world. What makes it a noble profession is doctor's desire to serve the humanity. A doctor, physician, and a surgeon do not just cure the patients; they also care for patient's welfare and dignity.
A career in medicine is not only a service to the humanity but also one that will give a practitioner respect and honor. Both male and female students spend a great deal of time and painstaking effort, to pursue a successful medical career. These days, medical field promises equal opportunity to all dedicated students not based on their gender however, once the medical profession was male dominated while women come into the field after a long struggle.
In Pakistan, over recent years the proportion of women enrolling the medical colleges has increased rapidly. According to the Pakistan medical and dental council about 70 % of Pakistani medical students are female.
According to another data, at present about 78037 male and 65324 female doctors, 5420 male dental practitioners and 8300 female dental practitioners are in Pakistan. Out of the total medical and dental practitioners, almost 50 percent are women.
While a good proportion of female students are qualified as doctors there is a grim shortage of female doctors in the country. Recent studies showed that only 23 % of the nation doctors are women. Regrettably, in the field of medicine women doctors face continuous troubles at every stage of their career.
Myth or reality: Doctors are in huge demand in Pakistan when it comes to marriage. That is because people look up to doctors with respect and admiration. Two years back, BBC prepared a report "Are Pakistan's female medical students to be doctors or wives?" The report included the interview of the vice-chancellor of the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto medical university in Islamabad, Dr Javed Akram. He claimed that some female students are keener on catching a husband than on pursuing a career.
"It's much easier for girls to get married once they are doctors and many girls don't really intend to work as professional doctors," he says. "I know hundreds of female students who have qualified as a doctor or a dentist but they have never touched a patient."
There is other side of the coin as well, a brilliant and intelligent student of Dow University of Health Science, Ayesha Shoaib explains the reality "I certainly differ with his statement because most of the girls who pursue medicine don't enter the field with the intention of finding a spouse rather they are passionate about becoming a doctor. Hence, they work hard to get into medical college. Unfortunately, our biological clock is not in sync with our career clock and so the girls end up giving into family pressure and prioritize raising a family and looking after in-laws. Most of the female graduates I know get sad that they could not continue practicing as a doctor, and they certainly miss their working life that could help save lives by way of their knowledge and skills."
Service or slavery: Long duty hours and sleepless nights at the wards severely affect the performance of house job doctors especially woman doctors. A study says residents who work more than 24 hours are 73pc more at risk of needle-stick injuries and are 2.3 times more likely to have car accidents. The study says 24 hours without sleep slows reaction time similar to alcohol intoxication.
Patients often make complains of woman doctor's rude and harsh behaviors, however, they forget that she has spent restless odd duty hours to serve the patients at the OPD and wards.
Dr Seemi Tahir has been working in a private hospital for the last five years. She recalls her days as a trainee doctor; she said, "We remained on duty for 36 to 38 hours without taking any rest. My social life was almost destroyed. I often lost my temper and had unnecessary quarrel with the patients and Para medical staff as well.
A brave step was taken in 2017 by Doctor Dr Nafeesa Hiba who filed a petition in Islamabad high court against the long working hours medical professionals are made to work, especially resident doctors across the country.
Dr Nafeesa Hiba said resident doctors work 102 hours a week and continuously for 30 hours every other day. She said doctors work in unhygienic conditions and are not provided with proper food and safe drinking water. She said this drains doctors and that many women doctors leave the profession due to these reasons.
Work-life imbalance: A female practitioner is more likely to quit her job to accommodate household responsibilities. Last year, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) president Prof Dr Masood Hameed told the news conference that female medical students occupied the general merit seats in public sector medical colleges and got subsidy but after completing their education they never start their professional career.
Maria Farhan was a brilliant medical student and passed her exams with flying numbers. However, after graduation she got married and moved to the USA. She switched her career from a doctor to a boutique owner. She regrets "I feel sorry for myself. Throughout my student life I have dreamt of becoming a heart specialist but had to quit my career after marriage."
It is well proven fact that women pay a higher price than men to become a medical doctor. She has to face hardships if she continues a medical career. Women doctors with children particularly find themselves in hot water to keep home and work-life in balance. She has to sacrifice her time, energy, social life and sometimes her identity to carry on her professional duties. Most of the time in-laws want her to fulfill her household responsibilities but still she performs her professional duties.
Practicing abroad is an issue: Leaving the country after graduation is not just the priority among male doctors; women doctors are also enrolling to pass exams and get qualified to work abroad. This tend is creating more problems for the country where female doctors are in shortage. The College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) produced only 32879 specialists out of whom 40 percent left the country. Therefore, there are only 20000 specialists against the requirement of 100,000.
A nightmare: There is a drastic shortage of female doctors in rural and slum areas. To add fuel to fire male guardians of the family do not take them to doctors in early stages of the illness. Consequently, every year, hundreds of children and women in rural areas die because of lack of healthcare facilities, unavailability of qualified woman doctors and cultural constraints.
Serving in remote areas is a nightmare for lady doctors. They are reluctant to serve in villages and slum areas for number of reasons. Lack of basic medical resources, threatening environment, unsanitary hospital conditions, lack of professional staff are some of the key facts, which prevent doctors to serve in remote areas.
Ray of hope: Women living in rural, underprivileged areas of Pakistan often have to travel many miles to access healthcare. Recently a tele-healthcare platform "Sehat Kahani" is introduced by a two dedicated woman doctors Dr Sara Khuram and Dr Iffat Zafar. The platform connects at home out of work force female doctors to underserved patients in low and middle-income areas providing access to quality health care.
In July 2017, Sehat Kahani launched five new E-Health Centers in Interior Sindh and Karachi, respectively. Sehat Kahani currently constitutes a network of 14 E-Health Centers across Pakistan (Sindh, Punjab, KPK, and Karachi) which has served more than 550,000 patients directly and indirectly through its digital health care services.
The programme invites female doctors enthusiastic about interacting with patients, utilizing their medical knowledge, and gaining some clinical experience, all from the comfort of their homes. It offers flexible working hours that is scheduled around doctor's availability.
Without fixing the career problems of women in medicine, it is almost impossible to solve the issue of doctor's shortage in our country.