Starting an academic career. A survey of junior academic pulmonary physicians

To learn about the status of junior faculty in the specialty of pulmonary diseases and about their attitudes concerning their future in academic medicine.

Mailed survey.

A total of 209 junior pulmonary faculty were reported by the directors of the 106 US pulmonary training institutions with at least 3 fellow training positions; 157 (75 percent) responded to our questionnaire.

Most respondents described themselves as happy and productive, and almost all planned to stay in academic medicine. However, some problems were evident that could interfere with their plans to remain: a lack of protected time for research (only 15 percent of assistant professors and instructors spent 75 percent or more of their time in research), a lack of understanding about the rules and procedures of promotion (only 31 percent said they understood), failure of communication with the Chiefs of the Division and of Medicine (less than half had had a meeting about promotion with the Chief of the Division, 16 percent with the Chairman of Medicine), and a concern about their financial security (73 percent were concerned). Although women, who represented only 13 percent of the respondents, reported similar work hours and publication rates, they were less optimistic about promotion than the men (40 percent of women considered their chance for promotion good to excellent vs 64 percent of men). The junior faculty reported that the greatest obstacles to their academic success were insufficient protected time for their research, maintaining research productivity, and inadequate and uncertain funding.

The success of junior faculty is important to the success of academic medicine. More attention should be paid to ensuring protected continuous time for research, educating about promotion, and improving funding opportunities.