Family Planning for Docs – Thriving or Surviving?
Family Planning for Docs - Thriving or Surviving?
Podcast Description
This podcast is an extension of our platform at www.familyplanningfordocs.com, a website created for Canadian medical trainees to highlight useful information about family planning in a medical career. Our group has a mission to inform medical trainees about their options regarding family planning while navigating training, career and personal life. Our research has demonstrated that personal stories are highly impactful and we hope to provide access to a diverse number of stories to current trainees. On our podcast, we hope to capture the stories of medical professionals who have navigated the training process and a medical career while planning parenthood, parenting and the support along the way.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores themes of family planning, work-life balance, and personal narratives, featuring episodes like discussions on maternity leave, managing parenting with medical careers, and systemic changes necessary for supporting medical parents, with a focus on challenges faced by physicians in various specialties.
This podcast is an extension of our platform at www.familyplanningfordocs.com, a website created for Canadian medical trainees to highlight useful information about family planning in a medical career. Our group has a mission to inform medical trainees about their options regarding family planning while navigating training, career and personal life.
Our research has demonstrated that personal stories are highly impactful and we hope to provide access to a diverse number of stories to current trainees. On our podcast, we hope to capture the stories of medical professionals who have navigated the training process and a medical career while planning parenthood, parenting and the support along the way.
Dr. Stephanie Zhou is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto where she created the financial literacy curriculum and is the Director of Addiction Medicine at Sunnybrook Hospital. She sits on the board of Toronto Public Health.
Dr. Zhou immigrated to Canada and grew up in subsidized housing, which led to her investing in education and housing initiatives through philanthropy.
She founded the annual Physicians Financial Wellness conference, a national, philanthropic conference for physicians on financial education and practice management. The ticket proceeds were used to establish The Equity Award, an endowment fund supporting students with financial need.
Dr. Zhou received Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women award and the Ascend Canada Social Impact Award for her work in improving economic mobility through financial literacy. Dr. Zhou is a nationally invited speaker on personal finance and runs a popular financial education blog on Instagram and Youtube called Breaking Bad Debt. Her biggest accomplishment is being mom to a former NICU baby named Eleanor.
In this episode, Dr. Zhou shares her personal journey through an unexpected high-risk pregnancy and her daughter's preterm NICU stay, all while balancing a diverse career spanning clinical practice, administration, and teaching.
We also dive into the financial realities of maternity leave for physicians and the often-overlooked strategies she used to fund her leave, including insurance, investments, rental income, and creative revenue streams.
If you're navigating pregnancy, planning a family, or trying to build a fulfilling career in medicine while raising kids, this episode offers both inspiration and practical insights to help you thrive, not just survive.
Episode Resources:
- Pregnancy and Parental Leave Benefit Program (PPLBP) for Physicians: How to Apply & New Updates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z103-1PTSiY
- PPLBP Website:
https://www.ontario.ca/page/pregnancy-and-parental-leave-ontario-physicians
• Maternity & Parental Leave in Canada (Residents):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF4ybpVmZ3Q
- Planning for Pregnancy & Infertility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvfNpcc8MaU
- El Benefits & Childcare in Canada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0jOcsK14dg
Advocacy Updates:
https://www.oma.org/practice-professional-support/running-your-practice/operations-and-practic
e-management/human-resources-management/pregnancy-and-parental-leavel
• Parental Leave Facebook group advocating to extend leave to 22 weeks for physicians on the old PPLBP. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1729207944684550
Disclaimer
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