When Dr. Patience Reich, an assistant professor of medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., came out of residency training, she knew she still had a lot to learn about the finances of a hospital medicine group, navigating hospital politics, and becoming a leader. So she asked for help, finding mentors in and out of hospital medicine and becoming one of the first classes of physicians to go through the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Leadership Academy.
Dr. Reich was able to achieve many of her career goals, serving as medical director of the Wake Forest School of Medicine’s hospital medicine program for several years and national chair of SHM’s Leadership Academy from 2009 to 2011.
Courtesy Dr. Patience Reich
Dr. Patience Reich
Now she’s turning her passion for training hospital leaders toward the specialty’s gender gap. Following the release of survey data showing that women in hospital medicine make less than their male counterparts, Dr. Reich cochaired a session at the SHM annual meeting to discuss some of the reasons behind the pay inequality.
In an interview with Hospitalist News, Dr. Reich explained some of the challenges faced by women in the specialty and offered some advice from her own experience.
HN: Is the pay gap between men and women in hospital medicine something unique to the specialty or is it something that we hear about in other industries?
DR. REICH: It’s not unique to the specialty. I think the assumption was that hospital medicine was different. When we got some of the data back and found that it was not, that was rather disappointing.
HN: Why are so few women rising to leadership positions in hospital medicine?
DR. REICH: I think it’s a combination of factors. We are a young field and many people are in their child-bearing, child-raising years. It’s just very difficult to balance everything. And as long as women continue to do the majority of the work at home, that problem remains.
The lack of mentors is another big one. Since many of us didn’t have any training when we started out, the early medical directors and leaders were just struggling to keep their own heads above water. We had so many unique challenges, there was no time to really consider or set up mentoring programs.
HN: Do you feel like you’ve experienced gender bias in your career as a hospitalist?
DR. REICH: There was a time when I took some time off and did some locum tenens work to keep my skills from getting rusty. I worked as a hospitalist for a large internal medicine group in a medium-size community hospital, along with another woman and a man. The man would sometimes not show up for his assigned shifts. One weekend, I was forced to stay there because he was a no-show. It turned out he didn’t even have an emergency, he was just at the beach! Later, we discovered that he was getting paid a lot more than we were. By all metrics, we were doing a lot better job. I went to the locum company and asked them what this was about. They had no response. That was the last time I worked there.
HN: What advice would you give women who are aspiring to leadership positions in hospital medicine?
DR. REICH: You have to indicate that you are interested in leadership by taking on some task, even if it’s something small. One of the things about gender bias is that men tend to be judged on their potential, while women tend to be judged on their accomplishments. So, if you aspire to leadership, make sure you have some leadership accomplishments.
Women definitely need to seek out mentors. These mentors don’t have to be other women. The majority of my mentors have been men. I have had a specific kind of mentor known as a "sponsor." Sponsors are high ranking and influential in an organization, and the relationship is predicated on power and very focused on career advancement. Sponsors provide access to informal networks and help you get high visibility leadership assignments.
Self-promotion is often necessary in leadership, but frequently is seen as inappropriate when done by women. Sponsors can help you get around that by tooting your horn for you.
Take us to your leader. Nominate a hospitalist whose work inspires you. E-mail suggestions to m.schneider@elsevier.com. Read previous columns at ehospitalistnews.com.