What inspires some women physicians to eschew private practice in favor of a career in academic medicine? Why are they willing to make a considerable sacrifice in income while taking on the burdensome workload required by the academic life: the research, teaching, administrative tasks, and so forth? The answer has a lot to do with ideals. For most such women, academia provides a uniquely supportive and creative environment where they can share ideas, where their research may lead to the solution of major medical problems, and where they can still practice clinical medicine - and at the same time perform the valuable service of teaching the art and science or medicine to the physicians of tomorrow.
The work is hard indeed. The average academic physician spends 63 hours per week in professional activities - about 20 hours in research, 12 in teaching, 16 in patient care, 12 in administration, and ...
