Month: December 2014
Cold hands, bright eyes, and tuberculosis… Happy New Year!
We asked our Women Surgeons to share with us their Holiday traditions and some of their favorite memories of the holidays. Please enjoy these delightful stories from fellow AWS members -- and feel free to share your own in the Comments. Happy Holidays from all of us on the Blog team and the AWS! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lauren Poindexter MD Candidate, Class of 2015 Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine Nearly every child lining the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade route on New Year’s Day in Southern California is bundled up to their noses in oversized parkas, gripping onto their parents hands tightly so as not to get lost in the excitable mass of humanity. Long before the start of the parade at 8:00am, bright-eyed children pull adults this way and that in attempts to touch the vibrant flowers, seeds, and grasses of the floats, stare at the huge costumed parade horses,...
Happy Holidays from the AWS!
We asked our Women Surgeons to share with us their Holiday traditions and some of their favorite memories of the holidays. Please enjoy these delightful stories from fellow AWS members -- and feel free to share your own in the Comments.Happy Holidays from all of us on the Blog team and the AWS! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Minerva Romero Arenas, MD, MPHResidentWhat holiday do you celebrate and what is the special meaning of thisholiday to you?We celebrate Christmas Eve because in the Catholic faith it is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. My family traditionally gave us kids gifts on Día de Los Reyes Magos (The 3 Wise Men), which correlates to the gifts presented to Jesus. In addition to reflecting on the spiritual meaning of the Christmas holidays, I also like to take time to think about the previous and upcoming years and to remind my family and friends how special...
AWS’ Clinical Practice Committee pilots a TweetChat
Over the past few years, the Clinical Practice Committee has periodically read and discussed books which have provided beneficial tactics for added success in the management of our professional and personal lives. This activity has truly been enjoyed by the committee members. In search of ways to share this activity with the larger membership, we decided to pilot a tweet chat. The committee’s experience with twitter ranged from zero to those who frequently tweeted. Armed with some basic guidelines from the Healthcare Leadership blog and the buffersocial blog, the CPC had its first Tweet chat on November 10. The book for discussion was Success Under Stress by Dr. Susan Melnick. This book was reviewed by Dr. Sasha Adams in the August issue of eConnections. Dr. Adams led the discussion for the tweet chat. There were seven participants. A few of us had some problems initially seeing the stream of conversation,...
Ergonomics-A Call to Action-When Helping Others Harms the Surgeon
By: Celeste Hollands, MD, FACS Why was everyone shocked when shortly after my partner retired I told them he was only 62? He had had a heart attack and back surgery during his career. He walked with a limp and had to sit to operate due to years of standing in the operating room without regard to his own well being so he could provide outstanding surgical care to the children he served. We give our time selflessly, our reimbursement is diminished, there are certain health hazards to a job where you stand on your feet, but must we sacrifice our health? Isn’t there a better way to partner with industry to develop instruments and devices that are ergonomic or can be made ergonomic for all that use them? We all remember our childhood and think back to what has changed as we have grown up and grown older. I...