By Dr. Smruti K Patel 7:30 am. 15 blade. Incision. Bovie. Bipolar. Number one Penfield. Drill. Irrigation. Suction. Bipolar. 11 blade. 7 suction. Bipolar. The words, the commands, they are automati...
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From Barbies to Blades: Reflections on a Barbie Society
By: Shannon Small “Mommy, so does Barbie have a vagina now?” My 3.5-year-old daughter has been excited to see the Barbie movie since we saw the first preview last summer. So when it came out, we ...
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Balancing a Career as a Surgeon-Scientist
By: Kavitha Ranganathan, MD Satisfaction in one’s career can come from a variety of places. In fact, most of the time, it has to come from a variety of places. Don’t place all your eggs in one ba...
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Representation in social media matters: interview with Dr. Betsy Grunch, MD, FAANS, FACS
Interview by Agata A. Szulia, MD This series of interviews seeks to amplify the voices of female surgeons who are actively engaged on social media. Through sharing their perspectives, expertise, gl...
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The Association of Women Surgeons National Medical Student Committee
By Charlotte Smith, Gopika SenthilKumar, Paulina Gutkin Fostering a community intended to elevate women medical students is vital not only for increasing representation within surgery, but also build...
Blog
Forget About Perfectionism; Instead, Strive for Excellence
By Fara Bellows, MD As surgeons, we are high-level performers who expect specific results from precise planning and execution. Throughout our education, we developed a keen awareness of the requireme...
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Diversify Ourselves
By Dr. Chantal Reyna How well would you handle not being able to perform surgery anymore? The real question is “How much of your identity is based on being a surgeon?” We tend to define ourselves...
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Creating an Inclusive Surgical Community: Association of Out Surgeons & Allies
When I was asked to write a piece describing who the Association of Out Surgeons & Allies (AOSA https://www.outsurgeons.org/) is for the Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) blog, I paused. I hesi...
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5 reasons I pursued an executive MBA and how it has helped me so far.
Heather Yeo, MD, MHS, MBA, MS Having recently (2019) completed an executive masters in business administration (MBA) program, I often get asked about why I pursued one in the first place, if I would ...
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Meet the Blog Team
The Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) Blog was started in 2013 by some amazing female surgeons. We have appreciated the support and growth of the blog since then. We love sharing the stories of wom...