Association Between Vacation Characteristics and Career Intentions of US Physicians-A Cross-Sectional Analysis.

Objective: To assess the association between physicians' vacation characteristics and career intentions.

Participants and methods: This is a cross-sectional survey of a sample of US physicians between November 2022 and September 2023. Vacation days in the last year, inbox coverage, performance of patient-related work on vacation (WOV), intent to reduce clinical hours in the next 12 months, and intent to leave current practice in the next 24 months were assessed.

Results: Of 5059 respondents, 2163 of 4537 (47.7%) reported fewer than 15 days of vacation in the last year, with 443 of 4537 (9.8%) taking 5 or fewer days. Nearly half (48.6%) reported not having full electronic health record inbox coverage on vacation. Most (72.0%) reported WOV, with 33.6% performing more than 30 minutes per day. On multivariable analyses adjusting for personal and professional characteristics, taking 15 or fewer days of vacation per year (odds ratio [OR], 1.37 [95% CI, 1.14 to 1.64]), absence of full inbox coverage (OR, 1.36 [95% CI, 1.13 to 1.63]), and more than 30 minutes per day of WOV (OR, 1.50 [95% CI, 1.24 to 1.81]) were each associated with higher odds of intent to reduce clinical hours. Similarly, taking 15 or fewer days of vacation per year (OR, 1.19 [95% CI, 1.00 to 1.41]), not having full inbox coverage (OR, 1.33 [95% CI, 1.12 to 1.57]), and more than 30 minutes per day of WOV (OR, 1.44 [95% CI, 1.21 to 1.72]) were each associated with higher odds of intent to leave current practice.

Conclusion: In this large, cross-sectional study, the number of vacation days taken, inbox coverage, and time spent on patient-related work while on vacation were each independently associated with career intentions. Organizational efforts to optimize these vacation characteristics may foster retention of physicians.