Abstract

We determined the employment status of recently graduated otorhinolaryngologist-head and neck surgeons (ENT doctors) in Finland during the past 10 years. We also investigated the job vacancy rate of the Departments of Otorhinolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (Department of ORL-HNS). An electronic questionnaire was sent to all ENT doctors who had graduated during 2007–2017 and to chief physicians of all Departments of ORL-HNS. Chi-square and Fisher’s test were used in the analyses. Altogether 129 ENT doctors had graduated and 125 (96.9%) responded. Thirty (24%) physicians had been employed in a position that did not correspond to their ENT doctor training. All 30 chief physicians responded and a total of 306 physicians were working at their departments (215 ENT doctors, 91 residents). However, there were only 241 available positions (197 for ENT doctors, 44 for residents). It was estimated that 65 ENT doctors would retire within 10 years. At the moment there does not seem to be a significant shortage of ENT doctors in Finland. The current national volume of resident intake in the ENT training programme is twofold in comparison with the estimated retirement rate in the public sector.

Details

Title
Employment status of young otorhinolaryngologists in Finland during a 10-year period
Author
Penttilä, Elina 1 ; Hannula, Samuli 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Numminen, Jura 3 ; Irjala, Heikki 4 ; Selander, Tuomas 5 ; Parmanne, Piitu 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Mäkitie, Antti 7 

1  Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Kuopio University Hospital and University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland 
2  Department of Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland; PEDEGO Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland; Medical Research Center Oulu, Oulu, Finland 
3  Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Tampere and Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland 
4  Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland 
5  Science Service Center, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland 
6  Political Science, Finnish Medical Association, Helsinki, Finland 
7  Department of Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland; Research Program in Systems Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Division of Ear, Nose and Throat Diseases, Department of Clinical Sciences, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden 
Publication year
2020
Publication date
Dec 2020
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Ltd.
e-ISSN
22423982
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2020.1715710
ProQuest document ID
2468557324
Copyright
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons  Attribution – Non-Commercial License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.