Career Vitality: Perceptions from Women Faculty in Health Professions

Abstract

Objective: Career vitality is experienced when personal and professional life commitments align. To examine perceptions of and strategies used by women faculty in health professions to achieve career vitality.

Methods: A 2-round Delphi method was used to identify career vitality descriptors, personal-professional-life equilibrium, and strategies for achieving career vitality among 16 women faculty recruited from the National Academies of Practice. Qualitative analysis identified themes.

Results: The consensus-generated descriptors of career vitality were 'growth mindset', 'motivated/passionate', and 'collaborative'. Descriptors of personal-professional-life equilibrium were 'prioritize', 'balance', and 'nimbleness'. Personal resilience was the major strategy to gain equilibrium. Challenging perceptions to overcome included role expectations for women working outside the home, which correlated with a system strategy such as organizational tools.

Conclusion: Achieving career vitality and personal-professional-life equilibrium is challenging. The strategies generated can be utilized by women faculty to better align work-related demands when challenges are high, and resources are low.

Keywords: Career vitality; Health sciences; Women faculty; Work-life balance; Work-life integration.