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Transformational Times
Words of Hope, Character & Resilience from our Virtual Community
Friday, May 20, 2022
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In This Special Women in Surgery Issue: | |
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Director's Corner
Perspective/Opinion
Take 3
Poetry Corner
- Emily Dickinson: Surgeons must be very careful
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Your Turn
Upcoming Events/Announcements
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Director's Corner
Women In Surgery: Why Is It Taking So Long?
By Adina Kalet, MD, MPH
In this issue of the Transformational Times devoted to women surgeons, Dr. Kalet wonders why it is taking so long for the surgical specialties to reach gender equity …
Surgery has been slow to attract and retain women. Women make up a bit over 35% of all active physicians and 18% of all School of Medicine Department Chairpersons, but less than one-quarter of 10 surgical specialties, only 5.3% of orthopedic surgeons and only 9% of Chairs of Departments of Surgery in North American. There are some entrenched social deterrents to surgical careers among women (and probably many men). These include concerns about the compatibility of a career in surgery with starting families and raising children and the reputation of surgery training programs as harsh women-unfriendly spaces. However, through successful efforts to attract more women into surgery and creative structural changes that support long term career viability for women surgeons we are about to reap significant benefits.
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Perspective/Opinion
Celebrating MCW Women in Surgery
By Kathleen Christians, MD
Dr. Christians is a Professor of Surgery in the MCW Surgical Oncology program with a specialty in hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) procedures. She shares the story of her journey to medicine and impressive data on MCW’s track record in recruiting and retaining women surgeons …
My pathway to becoming an academic Hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) surgeon was not at all obvious nor planned. I grew up on a farm outside a small town in Iowa, and was raised as one of four children to a farmer father and stay-at-home mom. While medical field friends, family or acquaintances were lacking to provide me with career advice and mentorship, I was surrounded by solid role models with incredible work ethics, a sense of deep caring for their fellow humankind, and parents who remained steadfastly in my corner no matter what the circumstance. Through my various sports-related injuries and my mother’s journey through liver transplantation for autoimmune disease, I spent a major part of my youth in emergency departments and hospitals across the northern Midwest. It was during these times that my interest in medicine began.
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Perspective/Opinion
Mentorship in Academic Surgery
By Tracy S. Wang, MD, MPH, FACS
Dr. Wang, an MCW faculty with expertise in endocrine surgery, talks about how mentors have influenced her life and career as an academic surgeon …
I was recently invited to be a Visiting Professor at the University of Calgary Department of Surgery, participating as a guest judge for Resident Research Day and as a lecturer for the 19th Annual Dr. Roy Preshaw Academic Lecture. The visit, capped off by two days in the Canadian Rockies, was a refreshing reminder of many of the reasons I chose a career in academic surgery and of the incredible opportunities it has provided, both personally and professionally.
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Three Questions with Dr. Mary Otterson
Life as a Woman in Surgery
Dr. Mary Otterson, a General Surgeon at MCW with special expertise in Colorectal Surgery and Inflammatory Bowel Disease, shares her reflections on being a woman in surgery and pivotal experiences early in her training that led to an academic career…
Dr. Otterson answers the following questions:
- Can you share some of your early experiences during residency training or as a junior faculty that were pivotal for you as a woman pursuing an academic career?
- What would you tell an M1 student who wants to follow in your footsteps?
- How do you forecast the role of women in surgery will change over the next twenty years?
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Three Questions with Dr. Caitlin Patten
Life as a Woman in Surgery
Dr. Caitlin Patten, a Breast Surgical Oncologist at MCW with special expertise in breast cancer, shares her journey to medicine and a surgical career, and reflects on the importance of work/life balance …
Dr. Patten answers the following questions:
- Can you share some of your early experiences during residency training or as a junior faculty that were pivotal for you as a woman pursuing an academic career?
- What would you tell an M1 student who wants to follow in your footsteps?
- How do you forecast the role of women in surgery will change over the next twenty years?
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Surgeons must be very careful
By Emily Dickinson
Surgeons must be very careful
When they take the knife!
Underneath their fine incisions
Stirs the Culprit - Life!
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For this week's reflection prompt, please answer the following question:
How will you celebrate Memorial Day?
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New Academic Medicine Innovation Report
MedMoth Storytelling program receives grant
Congratulations to the MedMoth Storytelling program for receiving a grant from the Charles E. Kubly Foundation.
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New Academic Medicine Innovation Report
REACH: A Required Curriculum to Foster the Well-Being of Medical Students
In this Academic Medicine Innovation Report, Drs. Cassie Ferguson, Tavinder Ark and Adina Kalet of the Kern Institute describe the REACH curriculum (Recognize, Empathize, Allow, Care, Hold each other up), a required, longitudinal well-being curriculum for first- and second-year medical students at the Medical College of Wisconsin designed to prepare them for the emotional life of being a physician.
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Register Now
The Doctor as a Humanist DASH 6th Symposium: Humanism in Surgery
Fabrice Jotterand, PhD and Clara Bosco will be leading a plenary session entitled The Wise Surgeon in the Age of Artificial Intelligence at The Doctor as a Humanist DASH 6th Symposium: Humanism in Surgery, a hybrid event.
May 20, 2022
Hybrid Event
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Academic Medicine Call For Papers
Academic Medicine is seeking original submissions for their Letters to the Editor feature from medical students, residents, fellows, and trainees in other health professions on the topic of a transformative moment in your professional journey.
The editors will be looking for letters that go beyond describing an event to reflect meaningfully on how the experience affected your professional identity formation. In other words, a successful letter will not simply tell us what happened, but will also illuminate the role of that experience in shaping your identity as a health care professional. We expect you to use your personal experience to illustrate the point, but the purpose of the letter should be to communicate a broader issue or idea that has relevance for others throughout academic medicine. Submissions that are strictly narrative will not be considered for publication. Authors wishing to submit a strictly narrative piece should explore the journal’s Teaching and Learning Moments feature as an option.
Submissions will be accepted between 5/23/2022 and 5/27/22 only.
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Join us
KICS Journal Club with Dr. Margaret Chisolm
KICS journal club is an opportunity to discuss some of the latest, influential, and/or thought-provoking articles in medical education with the authors who wrote them. It is an opportunity to learn about new ideas, methodologies, assessments, and strategies for publishing in medical education.
Dr. Chisolm the vice chair for education and a professor of psychiatry and behavior sciences and medicine at Johns Hopkins University and the author of From Survive to Thrive: Living your best life with mental illness.
June 8, 2022
via Zoom
12:15 pm - 1:00 pm CT
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Please Join Us
KINETIC³ Graduation Celebration
Please join the live (via Zoom) KINETIC³ Graduation Celebration as we recognize the contributions and accomplishments of these outstanding educators who successfully completed either the Excellence in Teaching or Medical Education Research Tracks
This celebration will highlight the graduates' character, caring, and curiosity through:
- Teaching Pearls and Words of Wisdom provided by the Excellence in Teaching Track
- Scholarly work and Research Outcomes provided by the Medical Education Researcher Track
We hope you will join us to recognize these outstanding accomplishments!
June 8, 2022
via Zoom
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm CT
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The Transformational Times publishes weekly, delivering stories of hope, character and resilience to our virtual community. | |
Editorial Board: Kathlyn Fletcher, MD, Adina Kalet, MD, Wendy Peltier, MD, Erin Weileder, Nabil Attlassy, Julia Bosco, Ana Istrate, Scott Lamm, Sophia Neman, Wolf Pulsiano, Eileen Peterson, Neehal Shukla, Sarah Torres, Anna Visser, James Wu, Serena Zacharias & Emelyn Zaworski
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