eprintid: 10091073 rev_number: 19 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/09/10/73 datestamp: 2020-03-12 20:16:48 lastmod: 2021-10-12 21:52:37 status_changed: 2020-03-12 20:16:48 type: thesis metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Unwin, Emily Armandine title: Gender differences in the professional performance of doctors practising in the UK ispublished: unpub divisions: UCL divisions: B02 divisions: C10 divisions: D20 note: Copyright © The Author 2020. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. abstract: Throughout this thesis I aim to address the research question “is there a gender difference in doctors’ professional performance, and if so why?” Professionalism is at the core of delivering good medical care. Most doctors pursue their medical careers without complaints that question their professionalism and even fewer have action taken against their medical registration; however, previous research suggests certain groups of doctors – including men – are referred more often to the medical regulator. I explored the research question through six quantitative studies: 1. Multivariate analyses of administrative data from the UK medical register to investigate the relationship between gender and having sanctions imposed. 2. Systematic review and meta-analysis to quantify the association between gender and medico-legal action. 3. Multivariate analyses of results of a clinical postgraduate medical examination to investigate the association between gender and pass rates. 4. Systematic review and meta-analysis of postgraduate examination performance to investigate the association with gender. 5. Administrative data linkage study of General Practitioners’ performance at an examination designed to assess doctors under investigation for fitness to practise concerns, by gender. 6. Path analysis of longitudinal survey data of doctors to investigate whether empathy, communication style and personality mediate the association between gender and sanctions. Female doctors were less likely to have experienced medico-legal action and performed better on average than male doctors at clinical postgraduate medical examinations, suggesting that the skills highly valued in clinical examinations may be protective. Empathy, communication style or personality were not significantly correlated with sanctions, however, gender differences were present. As pressure continues to grow on our health system it is important to support our medical workforce. Gaining a clearer understanding of the doctors who have fitness to practise concerns will better enable the medical community to support and enhance the professional performance of all doctors. date: 2020-02-28 date_type: published oa_status: green full_text_type: other thesis_class: doctoral_open thesis_award: Ph.D language: eng thesis_view: UCL_Thesis primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1750906 lyricists_name: Unwin, Emily lyricists_name: Woolf, Katherine lyricists_id: EAUNW31 lyricists_id: KWOOL71 actors_name: Unwin, Emily actors_name: Austen, Jennifer actors_id: EAUNW31 actors_id: JAUST66 actors_role: owner actors_role: impersonator full_text_status: public pagerange: 1-406 pages: 406 event_title: UCL institution: UCL (University College London) department: UCL Medical School thesis_type: Doctoral editors_name: Dacre, J editors_name: Woolf, K editors_name: Potts, H citation: Unwin, Emily Armandine; (2020) Gender differences in the professional performance of doctors practising in the UK. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10091073/1/Unwin_000_Thesis.pdf