#COVID19 has disproportionately affected careers of women in healthcare and science.
As I reflect on my own experience at work as a woman, a physician, and a leader, here are some things that make a big difference, to me and to the teams I lead:
➡️ Flexibility on when, where, and how we work
➡️ Professional development activities protected as part of the job – not “on your own time” extras
➡️ Supportive culture that is committed to employee wellbeing, and employees being themselves
➡️ Private spaces for meditation, massage, and exercise - and YES, we use them!
➡️ Paid parental leave and private rooms for lactating moms
➡️ Financial and time support to level up our skills and competencies
Had an unintentionally profound moment with an executive coach recently.
She said “maybe you should just stop thinking about what's next and enjoy that you’ve arrived."
What? I almost 😢. ♥️ stopped. But wait - there's important context...
I was telling her my life story, the professional twists and turns.
The part where my husband got cancer.
The part when I left academic clinical medicine- my love, and my identity.
Would I still "be" a doctor?
Would my accomplishments and work matter? Or be nothing...
I had, after all, pretty much achieved all the "important" things.
Invited speaker around the 🌏
Academic rank/promotion
Examiner for my specialty’s Board
Board of Directors for multiple orgs
Many national committees
Teaching residents/students
Successful separate businesses
Social media is where people often put a selective best on display. But #medtwitter - this is what I'm hearing behind the scenes.
I'm posting this thread so you know you're not alone, and you deserve better than this:
[1/🧵]
I'm reading comments on a registration form re: an upcoming session about nonclinical physician careers.
I asked why they were interested in attending.
They said:
[2/]
😕 Exhausted. All the time.
🙁 Work is more demanding without the same feeling of satisfaction
😕 I feel replaceable. Expendable.
🙁 Need better life-work balance. Have been...
Early on Day 3 of #ANES20 - you may need to zoom in! Our virtual community has grown! Who do you see? Do you see yourself?
(a visual conference 🧵/)
A metrics update - fewer users than prior years, to be sure, but very respectable engagement and activity. Over 13 million impressions :) This speaks to the collective followers of the users who are #tweetingthemeeting #ANES20
What's getting the most engagement? Here are some of the top conversations and images shared. Did you attend those sessions? What was the best part? #ANES20
🦠Thoughts about a #COVID19 vaccine - it's not as simple as you may think. 💉
Here are 7 sets of questions that need to be answered (and surely there are more, so feel free to add your own):
[a thread]
1) Will the vaccine candidates actually work?
Yes, there are multiple candidate vaccines and trials underway. But Phase III trials are just starting. Even with promising early phase data showing an immune response - will that response be enough?
2) What does 'efficacious' mean for a vaccine? Are we talking complete immunity, or simply reduced disease severity? There's a range of possibilities, and while anything may be better than nothing, this will impact how we live after 'we have a vaccine'