career development
Interview with Dr. Carolina Torres Perez-Iglesias
By: Gopika SenthilKumar and Jamesa Fabien This first post of the International Medical Graduate Blog Series highlights Dr. Carolina Torres Perez-Iglesias’ path to surgical residency training in the US. She was born and raised in Lima, Peru, where she also attended medical school. She had a broad interest in general surgery and chose to explore the field further by doing international surgical rotations in places like Germany and the US and by volunteering with groups such as Operation Smile. During her last mission trip after completing medical school, she met Dr. Michael Kelly, a plastic surgeon from Miami. “We started operating together, and we just clicked. He impressed me with his clinical and technical skills, and I knew then I had to seek training in the US.” she says. “At that time, I didn’t know other people doing a surgical residency in the US. I didn’t have a mentor or...
Time to leave the (training) nest: Finding your first attending job
By Kimberly B Hoang The job search for the first attending position is likely the first time in over a decade where surgical trainees face real choices and autonomy regarding their future. Before this, we are told where to work by the MATCH, what to study in medical school, and how to spend almost every waking minute during residency. Our training programs dictate our rotations, the ACGME dictates our success, and even our relationships / personal lives are invariably somewhat dictated by external forces not in our control. It is, therefore, little surprise that many struggle with a seemingly overwhelming number of choices when looking for their first attending job. This time there is no set “process”, no rank list, and no MATCH algorithm to guide you. In fact, there is little transparency about job availability, details, candidacy, and competitiveness, especially as we continue to increasingly subspecialize. Coupled with the...
Essentials for the Zoom Interview Trail
By Alyssa Brown In the summer of 2021, I moved back to Louisville with a 12 foot moving truck full of stuff—ready to start my last year of medical school. I was aware that I would need things for Zoom interviews, but I was unaware of how many logistical hoops there would be to jump through. Call me crazy, but when I was looking for apartments, I tried to find one that had an area where I could easily do virtual interviews. Despite my best plans, I spent the night before my first interview pushing furniture around my apartment trying to find the perfect location. I originally had my set-up in my second bedroom, but this room faced the train tracks. The trains would rumble past once or twice an hour, and I decided I could not risk the noise disruption. I tugged my desk through the small door frame...
You can’t be what you can’t see.
By Sheina Theodore, MD I was born and raised in NYC. The product of two Haitian immigrant parents. I saw my parents sacrifice everything for me, just so that the playing field would be leveled. I was fortunate to have them pushing me and making it possible for me to seize many opportunities. One of which was my acceptance into The Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, a B.S./M.D. program whose mission was to increase the number of minority physicians in order to care for underserved communities. Through this program, I participated in many community outreach efforts. These efforts were centered around understanding the barriers to health care, treating the patient as a whole (understanding different cultures, beliefs, socioeconomic situations, and how all this can deeply affect the overall wellbeing of our patients), and recruitment of future leaders who will aid in carrying out the mission of the school. I...
Faculty Recruitment Strategies to Improve Diversity
By Tanya Anand, MD, MPH and Elizabeth Shaughnessy, MD, PhD A diverse faculty is important for an institution’s continued growth and relevance to its community. Significant investment is required outside of the direct faculty job interview to improve diversity and achieve this goal. Each step of the recruitment process, i.e. the creation of the ideal candidate profile, recruitment of the search committee members, the active (not passive) hunt for the interested candidate, and the retention of that candidate are all equally important. Successful diverse faculty recruitment strategies are ones emphasizing retention, as well. The “leaky pipeline” and the inequity of minorities at the upper echelons of academia are indicators of what we must overcome. With that said, successful faculty recruitment strategies are ones in which institutional leadership plays an active role, and where the organization ensures that growth is fostered and promotion does not lag. The recruitment process does not...
Celebrating our Past, Transforming our Future: Reflections on making the AWS 40th anniversary celebration video
By Tiffany J Sinclair, MD As a member of the AWS Residents and Fellows committee, I had the privilege of putting together a video in celebration of AWS’s 40th anniversary that will be presented at the upcoming conference. I am by no means a professional video editor, but it is one of my hobbies and I was excited to have the opportunity to pay homage to our wonderful organization. In honor of the conference’s theme “Celebrating our Past, Transforming our Future,” several other members of the committee and I decided to interview a few of our past presidents for the video. We wanted to hear about their favorite AWS memories, their most meaningful experiences, and their thoughts on where our organization is headed in the future. In total, we interviewed five of our past presidents: Drs. Patricia Numann, Margaret Dunn, Leigh Neumayer, Beth Sutton, Myriam Curet, as well as our...
Avoiding Bias in Letter Writing
By Dr. Chantal Reyna It has been shown that implicit bias exists within letters of recommendation written for medical students applying for residency. In regard to gender, female applicants were more often described using grindstone phrases such as “hardworking,” and their letters were more likely to include descriptions of their personal life and physical appearance. Meanwhile, males were more often described using standout adjectives such as “accomplished.” Their letters also included more references to research activities. These biases extend to underrepresented minority (URM) applicants as well. Black applicants were more often described as “competent” compared to white applicants who were more commonly described by “standout” phrases, even after controlling for USMLE scores. Rojek et. al showed that word differences between non-URM and URM applicants’ letters had more competency based adjectives in non-URM letters while more personal attributes were used in URM letters. While these findings have been documented in residency...
The Courage to Redefine Your Career While Ignoring “The Noise”
By Dr. Brittany Johnson I started my journey in medicine boldly confessing to my mother at the age of five that I was “going to be a doctor.” My trademark of setting a goal and never giving up established itself early. Today, I have fulfilled that promise, but this story has a twist. Halfway through my pediatrics residency, I decided to pursue pediatric surgery. There was great gravity in this decision. This would mean an additional nine years of training minimum, in addition to four for medical school and three for pediatrics residency I was already committed to. I attempted everything to run from this path. I negotiated the possibility of committing to less training; compensating by “enjoying more of my life”. Maybe what everyone said about surgical training was correct and by making this decision, especially late in training, I was doomed to always put career first and family...
A Practical Guide to Establishing Mentors as a Virtual Medical Student
By Shan S. Lansing 2020 was the year for virtual medical education. Preclinical students would jest that they were attending Zoom School of Medicine, and whole cohorts of new medical students were inducted with virtual white coat ceremonies. Though video platforms made it possible for clubs and interest group meetings to continue, the free pizza and casual networking was replaced with gentle encouragement to go ahead and turn your camera on, if you’re comfortable. Beginning a career in medicine is daunting, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has only served to add new challenges to the already formidable tasks involved with beginning medical school, developing a support network, and creating meaningful relationships with mentors. I have heard from many preclinical medical students that the transition to virtual events has made it challenging to network and connect with surgeons. With that in mind, here are a few practical tips for establishing relationships...
A year of radical changes
By Dr. Rocio Carrera The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted our lives and plans. Almost a year after the world went into quarantine and after countless losses of lives, jobs, and homes, we can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel thanks to the mass vaccination programs in many countries. My life, same as many others, changed radically during 2020. I was working as an attending at a general hospital in Mexico City. After finishing residency in both general and thoracoscopic surgery, that was not my initial plan. I wanted to complete my surgical training abroad, but my own indecisiveness, lack of savings, and support, led me to postpone that dream. Not having achieved it right after finishing my fellowship was disappointing, and one of my biggest mistakes was always comparing myself to others. At that time, I felt that all the people I knew, especially my residency peers,...
