Study will help AAP respond to needs of early career pediatricians

AAP Department of Research

doi:10.1542/aapnews.2015368-36

Currently collecting the fourth year of data, the Pediatrician Life and Career Experience Study (PLACES) provides information on career trends as pediatricians launch their professional lives. The Academy initiated PLACES in 2012 to collect longitudinal data from early career pediatricians to identify emerging trends in the pediatric workforce and guide its response to those trends.

This is the first national, longitudinal study that will follow pediatricians prospectively to examine trends in both professional and personal facets of their lives, according to a recent article that describes the process to build PLACES (Frintner MP, et al.Pediatrics2015;136:370-380OpenUrl Abstract/FREE Full Text).

In many ways, pediatrics is at the forefront of demographic changes in medicine, with the majority of early career pediatricians now women with young children and many working part time and as employees rather than as owners (see figure). PLACES participants are highly satisfied with their choice to become a pediatrician but also value work-life balance.

“Academy leadership highly values the information we are gaining from PLACES and is grateful to those who are giving their valuable time completing the PLACES surveys,” said Anthony D. Johnson, M.D., FAAP, chair of the AAP Advisory Committee to the Board on Research. “The lessons we are learning from early career pediatricians — including that most are employees and many have high educational debt — are shaping our future programs and services for members.”

Dr. Johnson

PLACES includes two cohorts: the 2002-’04 residency graduates cohort and the 2009-’11 residency graduates cohort, with 900 participants in each cohort. Participants are sent two surveys each year, a longer one in the spring that includes questions from the key domains and a shorter one in the fall that includes questions on emerging topics identified to be important by PLACES pediatricians.

For more information on PLACES, visit www2.aap.org/research/places.htm or contact Mary Pat Frintner, in the AAP Division of Health Services Research, at 800-433-9016, ext. 7664, or mfrintner{at}aap.org.