career development
Polka-Dots, Checks, and Stripes: Does Gender Expression Matter?
By Gabrielle Rieth I am soft-spoken and often characterized as “nice,” “sweet,” or “adorable.” I express my gender identity in a way that is traditionally ascribed to females. This combination of characteristics has allowed me to be perceived as non-threatening, accessible, and approachable - all of which have benefitted me when working with new colleagues and when interacting with patients. However I also recognize that these traits may cause those same colleagues to overlook or underestimate my work ethic. Knowing this, I still do not bother to invest additional energy to correct their behaviors or assumptions about my capabilities. Why? While my peers are busy assessing my competence from the way I speak or portray my gender, I am focusing on getting ahead in my career. This was my default internal monologue. I drew inspiration from the #ILookLikeASurgeon campaign and believed my gender has made progress, as it is 2016...
When Breath Becomes Air: Understanding Mortality
Tweet chat (follow @WomenSurgeons) and additional blog post to come on March 13th 8 PM EST! By Shree Agrawal Dr. Paul Kalanithi’s memoir, When Breath Becomes Air, as Dr. Abraham Varghese promised in his foreword, confronted me with the truth of mortality. The kind that lies beyond textbooks, evidence-based medicine, and clinical research. Prior to reading his work, I perceived statistics about patient populations experiencing difficult diagnoses to exist in a world detached from my reality. I likened data surrounding diseases to Dr. Kalanithi’s perspective of “country facts”, his term for theoretical old wives’ tales about dangers in his hometown. The probabilities of human vulnerabilities, especially those that could apply to my loved ones and me, are ones I avoided and discreetly hoped to be untrue. When I read about his evolution from pre-medical years to those as a neurosurgery resident, there is a surprisingly relatable quality. I am with...
Food for Thought: Progressive Advice for Mentees
By Gabrielle Rieth I recently encountered an instance in which a mentor suggested that I and other female medical students rely on antiquated gender stereotypes to succeed in our upcoming clinical clerkship rotations. This advice was dispensed without any accompanying professional recommendations, such as pre-rounding on patients, recalling the patient’s medications and allergies, understanding the patient’s medical history, or practicing patient presentations prior to reporting to her residents or attending physicians. There is nothing amiss with possessing or utilizing “feminine” characteristics to enhance or improve one’s work environment. I personally felt the recommendation was inappropriate for the setting in which it was dispensed. It seemed, to me, to neglect other vital assets we as future physicians and surgeons will contribute to our clinical teams. I am soft-spoken and often characterized as “nice,” “sweet,” or “adorable.” I express my gender identity in a way that is traditionally ascribed to females. This...
Integrating Surgery and Family Life
By Lillian Erdahl As part of the discussion on work and life, I want to introduce a term I heard recently. A speaker at a conference I attended mentioned the concept of work-life integration rather than balance. Life, meaning the roles I have outside of my work. Many roles i I play sometimes conflict with each other, including: breast and general surgeon, teacher of residents and medical students, mother to two children, wife, daughter, granddaughter, aunt, sister, and friend. For now, I will focus on how I manage being a mother and being a surgeon. The struggle of working mothers and working parents is not unique to surgeons. However, the nature of my profession poses certain unique challenges. I cannot interrupt what I am doing in the operating room to talk to my child’s teacher or pick her up immediately from daycare if she has a fever. Some days the...
Maintenance of Self
By Jean Miner As many before me have asked, is there such a thing as balance when it comes to our careers and life outside the hospital? Maybe not, but we can realistically reach an equilibrium when we prioritize and allot time for all our responsibilities. Every time we step into the operating room we multitask, lead, and organize. Utilizing these same skills we have honed over time will aid us in our endeavor to reach stability between our career, family, friends, health, and most importantly our "self". ENLIST others to join you in your journey for equilibrium. As health care providers, we often neglect our own healthy sleep, diet, fitness, and preventive measures. Regarding your path to getting healthy - find a family member, friend, or colleague who has similar or even higher goals than you to help you design a plan or challenge. Set a realistic goal that...
Food for Thought: The Patient Side of Medicine
By Abigail Forbes I was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Scoliosis when I was 8 years old. After many years of driving hours away to doctor appointments, the frustration of wearing a back brace as a teenager, and increasing back pain, the decision was finally made for me to undergo spinal correction surgery. The surgeon placed rods on my upper curve during the operation, and unfortunately my lower spinal curve continued to progress over the next year as I grew. I was still hurting, my clothes still ill fitting, and we were starting to question the benefit, if any, I got from the surgery. Frustrated, my parents and I sought out second opinions regarding further treatment; it was a unanimous opinion that my surgeon should have placed rods on both of my thoracic and lumbar curves. We were disappointed with the decision by the first surgeon regarding my surgery, because I...
Balance
By Andrea Merrill If you had asked me about balance at age 10, I would have taken this question literally, immediately conjuring up an image of the balance beam that tortured me daily at gymnastics practice. The meager 4 inches of smooth, brown leather mocked me as I struggled with simple jumps, handstands, and half-turns. At 10, I was small but strong, shy but determined and I lacked the grace and finesse required for the delicate art of the balance beam. I remember standing tall, trembling, arms held high as I willed myself to arch backwards into a backbend, to overcome my fear of falling, my fear of failing, likely a metaphor for life to come. In medical school, balance became about understanding physiology, homeostasis, and how the body regulates itself. What happens when the immune system runs rampant, unchecked, and begins attacking itself? How does the body compensate when...
Food for Thought – Surgery: I Love This Job
By Lauren Poindexter, MD When was the last time you stood in the operating room and paused to think, “I LOVE this job”? What was it about that particular case, patient, or situation that caused you to feel a deeper gratitude for your vocation? As a general surgery intern, the prevailing feeling I experience on a daily basis is overwhelmed (as many of you may not so fondly remember ), but I am also energized by specific situations that emphasize the honor of diagnosing, incising, and healing. My most recent blog entry for the Association of Women Surgeons offered a broad suggestion that gratitude makes for a valuable New Year’s Resolution. I want to highlight a professional moment of gratitude in which I participated in an organ procurement (on a Sunday evening, of course!), I was deeply touched not only by the rare chance to follow the lead of a...
Food for Thought: When the Doctor Becomes the Patient
By Nickey Jafari During my first year of medical school, my class had the honor of having Dr. Jeffrey Piehler, a retired thoracic surgeon, come speak to us. You may know him as the author of the New York Times essay, "Ashes to Ashes but First a Nice Pine Box". You may also know him as the incredibly talented and dedicated surgeon that he was, being elected into all the major societies for cardiothoracic surgeons. Jeff Piehler, seen sitting in the pine coffin that he build has passed away. Credit Shari Hartbauer/Lincoln Journal Star. In 2002, Dr. Piehler was diagnosed with prostate cancer. This ultimately forced him to retire as he lost sensation in his fingertips from the aggressive treatments he underwent. In “Ashes to Ashes, but First a Nice Pine Box”, Dr. Piehler writes about how, after over a decade-long battle that he knew he...
Starting Again
By Ainhoa Costas Chavarri In the beginning, there is the excitement: The promise of interesting new people! exotic new places! shiny new things! Everything is wonderful in this daydream world of possibilities. But then reality comes along and hands you some practical weights to bring you back down into perspective. There will be moving involved. The distances may be literal and large- another city, another country. Or smaller but significant- a different office, remodeling a room for a new addition to the family. The most important part of the moving, however, the biggest change in starting again is often internal. Because in the shuffling and shifting and reorganizing of things, memories and thoughts get kicked up like dust. And that’s when the doubt creeps in: But I’ve grown so fond of this old place! Can I part with these old things I’ve become so accustomed to? What about all my...
