career development
Food for Thought: 2016-Time for a Change?
Lately I’ve started noticing a common theme- in public and private conversations, in various parts of the internet, the gathering of momentum. In November of this year I attended the Millin Meeting, the one day annual conference of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI). As it happened, one of the presentations that day was to be on the topic of women in surgery. In her speech, the surgeon covered the history of women surgeons in Ireland, discussed the current challenges of being a woman in surgery, and even gave a shout out to the #Ilooklikeasurgeon movement. Afterwards, a member of the audience asked the speaker about the problem of recruiting and retaining women into the surgical field. She paused for a moment before responding, “Both women AND men reject surgery careers due to problems with work/life balance.” Surgery is no longer for those who decide it’s ok not...
Inhale, Exhale, Say Yes
By Shree Agrawal Saying yes is complicated, powerful, and full of potential. Celebrities like Shonda Rhimes, known for her Thursday night television series and recent book, Year of Yes, and Ryan Seacrest, whose persona hosts many media outlets, have participated in the social experiment of saying yes to every opportunity they each are offered. They have earned success by saying yes and having the courage and ability to figure out how to fulfill each of their commitments. Medicine is no different from Hollywood. In each, only a small percentage of people achieve success. In 2013, the AAMC reported 48,000 people applied to medical school, and approximately 20,000 matriculated into their first year. In addition to international medical schools, the NRMP reported 41,334 registered applicants in 2015 for 30,212 available positions. This does not include the 80,000 people who take the MCAT each year and 13.2 million students who attend four-year...
Food For Thought: Fearing “Leaning In”
By Shree Agrawal We will now start featuring a new blog post each Sunday as well as Wednesday! Our Sunday post will be a reflection or question from AWS members. Follow our blog (enter your email below the “Subscribe to AWS Blog” on the right-hand side of the screen) and join the conversation in the comments section or on Twitter! Sheryl Sandberg’s “leaning in” has been featured, referenced, or adapted for most women in medicine/surgery events I have attended in the past year, and for good reason. Five years later, her TED talk and Lean In book continuously remind me of the complex issues we face, as women, in all environments—professional and personal. In leading my own medical school chapter of the Association of Women Surgeons*, my personal and professional interactions with my female peers have highlighted the fears many female medical students have about “leaning in” to a...
Spin Doctors
By Kelley Bullard The two most powerful words in any language are YES and NO. When my daughter was two and a half, she earnestly asked one day from her car seat: “Can I drive when I’m older? Can I drive… when I am four?” Our eyes met in the rear view mirror. She was completely earnest and I struggled to contain my smile. “Why of course you can drive when you are older sweetheart,” I replied. “When I am four?” she asked again. “We will negotiate when you are four, and you will definitely drive when you are older than two and a half!” Luckily her teachers at preschool had used the word ‘negotiate’ and she knew it meant that she would get some part of what she wanted. When I looked in the mirror again, I saw her contented smile focused on the tattered ‘black kitty’ who accompanied...
Inspiring & Encouraging Women Surgeons Blog
by Minerva Romero Arenas, MD, MPH It was only a month ago that thousands of surgeons met in Chicago for the annual American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress. Just days before, however, over 150 women gathered for yet another Association of Women Surgeons conference. Medical students, residents, and attending surgeons met to present their scientific work, celebrate accomplishments, discuss professional development, and network. An inherent part of the meeting is the ongoing development of relationships and mentoring that goes on at all levels. We learned from first-year medical student, Sarah Armenia, about the power of this experience even at such an early stage in training. The importance of mentoring is highlighted by the variety of activities specifically organized at AWS & ACS for medical students, residents, and fellows - and even a high school students. The #ILookLikeASurgeon movement was coined by surgery resident, Dr. Heather Logghe, inspired from the #ILookLikeAnEngineer...
Learning to Lead & Lean In: A Medical Student Perspective on AWS.
1st year Medical Student Sarah Armenia at the AWS Conference 2015. Author: Sarah Armenia I first became familiar with the Association of Women Surgeons after a simple Google search of “women in surgery.” After becoming a physician assistant a year prior, I had decided to apply to medical school instead of entering practice in order to become a surgeon. I was already aware of the American College of Surgeons from reading the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, but I had yet to discover an organization like the Association of Women Surgeons. As a member of the national medical student committee, I was given the opportunity to collect recordings and photos of AWS members discussing why they loved being a part of the AWS. I initially thought interviewing women who have spent their careers shaping surgery and medical education might be intimidating. However, this fear...
The Resident’s Guide to Landing that First Job
By Sareh Parangi A few months ago we had the pleasure of having Julie Freischlag (Vice Chancellor of Human Health Sciences and Dean at UC Davis School of Medicine and an AWS member) come and speak at MGH about her thoughts on the future of vascular surgery. I thought it would be nice for her to chat with the residents and fellows rather informally about how to successfully find their first job and negotiate a package that will work for them. I realize that residents work very hard and as faculty most of our efforts go into teaching them all kinds of clinical pearls so they can be competent and caring surgeons. However, one thing we neglect to teach them well is the transition to the next phase of their life-a real job! Keeping in mind that many residents are doing fellowships, it is not clear to me that fellowship...
Translating “Intellectual Capital” into “Career Capital”–What a Coach Can Do for You
By: Janet Bickel “We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.”—Mary Catherine Bateson “Success comes to people who know themselves, learn how to manage and develop themselves, and know how and when to change the work they do.”--Peter Drucker The careers of all physicians represent an enormous personal (and often public) investment. Yet many find themselves ill-equipped to navigate the complex systems characteristic of medicine today and are thus unable to fully capitalize on this investment in terms of job satisfaction or achieving their potential as leaders. Translating “intellectual capital” into “career capital” requires many skills not touched upon during medical school or post-graduate training. Taking effective responsibility for your own career now includes multiple systems and communications skills—that is team-building, bridging numerous kinds of differences, addressing conflicts with sensitivity as they arise, hiring and delegating, negotiating, financial management, and handling chronic tensions between personal...
Additional or Alternate Career Paths for Physicians
by: Celeste Hollands, MD, FACS, FAAP Twenty years ago as I started medical school I focused on graduating and matching into a residency. The biggest decision was which residency was right for me. As I progressed through my residency, I addressed the question of general surgery or sub-specialty and then private practice or academics. That was it. There always seemed to be two forks in the road. I am not sure if it is because I am older and wiser or because times have changed but the career choices now seem to be organized more into a flow chart than two forks in the road. There are so many more choices and so many more options for additional training and these choices and options are available at many career levels. The information age has put all of this information at our fingertips much earlier in our career and we can...
2014 AWS Conference Breakout Session – Mentoring & Career Advancement
by Nancy L. Gantt, MD, FACS Our packed table energetically discussed mentoring, sponsorship and career advancement. The discussion highlighted challenges some of the members were having at their own institutions. We spent a lot of time talking about the difference between mentorship and sponsorship, and why both are necessary for academic success. Dr. Emina Huang provided her insights about the difference between those two roles and how to find a sponsor. She noted that sponsorship is different than mentoring - the former helps with providing opportunities and exposure; the latter helps you with the steps to get there. The discussion about Mentorship highlighted the following points: Mentorship is valuable in all aspects of your professional AND personal life. You will likely need more than one mentor, as a single person may not be able to meet all your needs. Selecting a Mentor will be facilitated if you approach someone that...
