Month: August 2018
Have you asked for it?
By Ko Un ‘Clara’ Park When I was a trainee, my co-trainee was getting her manuscript finalized for submission, "It says the submission fee is $60." Sure, sixty dollars isn’t a lot of money but to a trainee on a budget who wasn’t guaranteed reimbursement, it was a lot. I asked, "well have you asked your mentor to help pay for it?" To which the response was, "No.. I just feel weird asking for something like that." The research mentor has funds to pay for activities related to research including cost of publication. She knew this but because the mentor didn't initially offer to pay, she felt uncomfortable asking. While in training, I had a great opportunity to hear one of the authors of the book "Women Don’t Ask" speak at a symposium. The financial repercussions of not negotiating were staggering. What was more eye opening to me were the...
What potential impact do surgeons have on breastfeeding?
By Nikki Mills In celebration and recognition of breastfeeding awareness month, I decided to write an article for the Association of Women Surgeons weekly blog. Some female surgeons have first hand experience in breastfeeding, and many have stories about their own personal challenges and experience. For those that rely only on the education they received on the topic during their medical training, their knowledge may be quite limited. On the positive side, awareness is increasing on the broad-ranging benefits of breastfeeding for both Mum & Baby. Research in this area has increased exponentially in the last decade, and the wonders and complexities of breastmilk composition are continuing to unfold. Antenatal education for mums is improving, and the motivation and intention to breastfeed is at an all-time high. Unfortunately, for a proportion of Mums, the breastfeeding journey does not progress as expected. When difficulties occur with breastfeeding, it can be a...
Succession is the key for change
By Susana Vargas-Pinto I recently had a casual conversation about fellowship with one of our Chief residents who matched into cardiothoracic surgery, which lit up my curiosity and expectation. “It is a great experience that will bring growth and maturity, you should look forward to it”. These words came from an international medical graduate with a family, who didn’t match the previous year. How could this be such a great experience? During my fellowship interview trail I met many successful women surgeons who shared some of their career experiences with me. Although still a minority, these well accomplished women overcame the obstacles in their journey and are now empowering younger surgeons in their career paths. While reflecting on this I was curious to know more about the first female physician in the USA and her own journey. Was it different from ours? Since Elizabeth Blackwell made history as the first...
The Changing Face of Medicine: Part Two
We are celebrating five years of the AWS Inspiring and Encouraging Women Surgeons Blog! First of all, we want to thank all of our members for contributing to the blog. You have shared your wins, hopes, concerns with us through candid pieces on the experience of being a Woman Surgeon. When we started this blog in 2013, there were not many surgeons on social media or blogging yet. It would be an understatement to say we are proud of the success of our blog and how engaged our members and audience has become. We have grown from monthly pieces to bi-weekly and now weekly scheduled posts. We have also introduced special interest pieces like #AWSFood4Thought touching on current events and #DearPat which was introduced by the Residents & Fellows in AWS. We have seen a radical change in the face of medicine. In 2017, a record 10,810 women matriculated into...
Not All Surgeons Fit the Stereotype
I recently went to my high school reunion where a classmate said to me “you seem too nice to be a surgeon”. It was a reminder to me that the stereotype of the mean, angry surgeon as recently discussed in the AMA Journal of Medical Ethics is present outside of the medical field. I first learned about this stereotype as a medical student, and was surprised since my own experiences as a surgical patient were very different from what is perpetuated in popular culture and surgical lore. My first memory of meeting with a surgeon was at age twelve when I was told that my spine had a curvature seen on a chest x-ray for pneumonia. I was referred to see an Orthopedic Surgeon at my local academic medical center. We went through a series of steps that day starting with specialized x-rays to further examine the abnormal curvature of...
The Keyboard is Mightier than the Sword
By Suzanne M. Murphy In a world where most people are connected on one or more social media platforms, the power of a social media campaign has never been higher. It is estimated that in 2019, 2.77 billion of the world’s population will be on social media, this figure is up from the 2017 figure of 2.46 billion. Facebook alone has 1.86 billion active users. This offers huge potential for sharing of information and ideas. Health systems do not tend to tap into this market when launching health education programmes. Individual pages for various support groups have a wealth of information on their area of relevance but there are few pages offering comprehensive health information. The Health service executive (HSE), Ireland’s public system, has a facebook page which offers a lot of information about the various health campaigns currently being undertaken by the HSE. However the page has just over...