INTRODUCTION
Attending and presenting at scientific conferences is critical for career advancement. It is especially important for early-stage investigators who benefit not only from the opportunity to present their research, but also from meeting other investigators, forming collaborations, and expanding their network.[1] However, parents with small children or other caregiver responsibilities often do not have the opportunity to attend conferences due to the additional costs associated with childcare or eldercare during the conference.[2]
Recognizing that one of the obstacles to career advancement is the lack of dependent care support during travel to scientific conferences, the Center for Faculty Development at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) established the Caring for Dependent(s) Travel Awards to help defray additional care expenses due to travel, with the goal to promote career advancement of faculty with caregiver responsibilities. In this report, we describe the design and outcomes of the program.
METHODS
The “Caring for Dependents Travel Award” was established in 2013 for faculty who needed help defraying additional dependent care expenses while traveling to a scientific conference/meeting related to their academic advancement. The $500 award can be used for the following expenses: (1) travel expenses for children/dependent(s), (2) travel expenses for children/dependent(s)’s caregiver during trip, (3) expenses for additional child/dependent care at home during the trip, and/or (4) expenses for child/dependent care at meeting site. The award does not cover conference registration or personal travel expenses for the faculty member.
A call for applications (i.e., description of the conference, how it will advance the applicant’s career, planned use of the awarded money) is issued twice per year to cover dependent care expenses. Eligible faculty must be at the Instructor or Assistant Professor academic rank and the travel must be a professional meeting for the purpose of advancing the faculty member’s career.
A 3-question survey administered through REDCap on the impact of the award was sent to award recipients in 2022 with the option to provide free-text comments on the question “How did the ‘Caring for Dependent(s) Travel Awards’ impact you?” These data are part of a data repository in the CFD approved by our institutional review board.
RESULTS
We awarded 209 Caring for Dependents Travel Awards from 2013 to 2020 (Table 1). We paused the program for the second half of 2020 and 2021 due to travel restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Sixty-nine awardees (33%) answered the survey. Of those who responded to the survey, the majority agreed or strongly agreed that the award made a positive impact on their professional career and work-life integration and allowed them to attend a meeting which they would otherwise not have been able to attend (Table 2). Sixty-eight awardees provided free-text comments.
Table 1.
Demographics (N = 209)
| Number (%) | |
|---|---|
| Sex | |
| Male | 41 (20%) |
| Female | 168 (80%) |
| Academic rank | |
| Assistant Professor | 88 (42%) |
| Instructor | 113 (54%) |
| Other | 8 (4%) |
| Degree | |
| MD | 118 (56%) |
| PhD | 70 (33%) |
| MD, PhD | 18 (9) |
| Other | 3 (1%) |
Table 2.
Survey Feedback (n = 69)
| Number (%) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Question* | Strongly agree | Agree | Neither agree nor disagree | Disagree | Strongly disagree |
| The Award made a positive impact on my professional career | 44 (64%) | 24 (35%) | 1 (1%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) |
| The award contributed to my work-life integration | 44 (64%) | 22 (32$) | 3 (4%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) |
| The award allowed me to attend a meeting which I would otherwise not have been able to attend | 41 (59%) | 18 (25%) | 8 (12%) | 3 (4%) | 0 (0%) |
*Exact wording of questions
Qualitative feedback revealed the following:
The award advanced their careers: “This award had a major impact during the earliest stages of my career. From that meeting, I was nominated to be an organizing member of the … I’m now the president of the whole division. This all started by attending the conference. I would have not been able to go without the extra support by this childcare award. Finally, this was an award that I could list on my CV as I was trying to show ‘success’ and institute recognition as a faculty member.”
The award provided peace of mind while attending the conference: “I was able to travel to a conference knowing that my mother would have someone who could take care of her while I was away. I was able to actually be present at the conference and learn and network.”
The institution cared about their career: “I thought the mere fact of having the award available spoke volumes—even more than the monetary help. It showed that even with small families the institution wants us to advance our academic career.”
DISCUSSION
The implementation of a Caring for Dependent(s) Travel Award to defray travel-related dependent care expenses supported the careers of early career faculty with caregiver responsibilities and improved work-life integration. In addition, faculty perceived that the institution cared about their career development. Future studies are needed to assess the impact of the travel award on the trajectory of academic promotion.
Funding
The study was supported in part by NIH grant K24DK109940.
Declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they do not have a conflict of interest.
Footnotes
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
References
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