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Objectives: In Germany, the 2018 amended Maternity Protection Act frequently leads to fundamental restrictions for female physicians, especially surgeons, and now even also for students impeding the progress of their careers. Our goal was to assess the current situation for pregnant female physicians and students, respectively, and their perspective on this amendment regarding their career path. Methods: A nationwide survey was conducted in Germany from December 2020 to February 2021. The questionnaire included 790 female physicians and students who were pregnant after the inception of the amended Act. Those women pregnant after the beginning of the corona pandemic were excluded. Results: The survey revealed that two thirds of female physicians worked a maximum of 50% in their previous professional activity as soon as they reported pregnancy. Amongst medical students this amounted up to 72%. 18% of the female physicians and 17% of the female medical students respectively could not follow the sense of these restrictions. 44% of female medical physicians and 33% of female students felt their career impeded. This led up to 43% amongst female medical doctors and 53% amongst female medical students, respectively, who were concerned to announce their pregnancy. As a consequence, pregnancies were reported at 12 weeks in female physicians compared to 19 weeks in medical students. Conclusions: Analyses of the current survey revealed that a relevant number of female physicians and medical students felt impeded in their career path through the application of the amended Maternity Act.
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In Germany, approximately 1500 female physicians become pregnant each year. This also applies to urologys. The announcement of a pregnancy is often met with ignorance and unanswered questions by chief physicians and colleagues. The aim of this study is to clarify how urological chief physicians assess the current situation and to present liability risks versus health risks. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From July to October 2019, an anonymous online questionnaire was sent to 340 chief physicians by the Working Group Young Urologists of the German Society of Urology (DGU). The questionnaire asked about the risk assessment of the workplace, the timing of a pregnancy announcement, and the employment possibilities of pregnant employees in urology. In addition, a law firm was commissioned to prepare a brief legal opinion on the topic of medical work and surgery during pregnancy with specific reference to the field of urology, including any liability risks. RESULTS: In all, 62 chief physicians participated in the survey (18.2%): 93.5% of the respondents considered an anticipatory risk assessment of the workplace for pregnant women to be useful; 82.3% would appreciate an overlapping recruitment by the employer. Respondents (62.9%) were skeptical of pregnant employees operating. Taking into account the regulations of the Maternity Protection Act, the liability risk does not exceed that which the employer generally has to bear. CONCLUSION: The amendment of the Maternity Protection Act has not fundamentally changed the reality for female urologists. However, the individual risk assessment provides an opportunity to develop concrete protective measures-also for the operating room-with the employer. The aim must be to provide pregnant women with greater support in asserting their rights in the future.
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Médicos , Urología , Femenino , Alemania , Humanos , Embarazo , Urólogos , Lugar de TrabajoRESUMEN
Background: Recent decades have seen controversial discussions on the validity of dissection courses in medical education, with alternative programs tested for various reasons. On April 1, 2015 the classification of formaldehyde as a hazardous substance was upgraded by the EU, leding to some universities precluding the participation of pregnant and breastfeeding students in dissection course. However, the revision to the Maternity Protection Act, implemented in Germany on January 1, 2018, now protects student mothers from being disadvantaged in their studies as a consequence of their pregnancy or breastfeeding. Therefore, universities must offer alternatives to dissection courses using formaldehyde to these female students. Project description: As an alternative to regular dissection courses, which use the abovementioned chemical, the Centre for Anatomy at Charité has opted for developing dedicated courses for student mothers. These new courses use plastinated prosection material instead of formalin-treated cadavers of body donors. As the core of the anatomical education takes place during the third and fourth semester in the current curriculum of human medicine at Charité the alternative courses are limited to those two semesters. Additionally, alternative exams at the end of both semesters had to be developed. The alternative courses were designed to offer pregnant and breastfeeding students a study program as close as possible to the one in which their peers learn human anatomy. Results: For the new courses, plastinates had to be produced and further specimens are still needed. Additionally required sets of bones, models and radiological images were readily available at the Centre for Anatomy. The planning and conceptualization of the courses took half a year of intense preparation. The courses for the third and fourth semester were first running during summer semester 2017. There is a clear demand for courses among pregnant and breastfeeding students. At least 5 student participants per course were registered, corresponding to every fortieth female student in their semester cohorts. The highest number of student participants was 13 in one course so far. The performances of the participants in the anatomical examinations were matching that of students attending the regular courses. Discussion: The alternative macroscopic anatomy courses enable the implementation of the revised Maternity Protection Act. The targeted student group is highly satisfied with the offered alternative courses. Considering the number of participants and their examination performance so far, the Centre for Anatomy regards the efforts involved in planning and implementing the courses as justified. The courses allow pregnant and breastfeeding students to address the same anatomical themes at the same time as their fellow students. However, due to restricted flexibility of plastinates and because students cannot prepare specific anatomical structures independently the scope of topographic learning is limited. That being said, well-produced plastinates can display anatomical structures which often cannot be dissected in regular courses. The alternative macroscopic anatomy courses using plastinates constitute suitable alternatives to the regular dissection courses with formalin-treated cadavers for pregnant and breastfeeding students.