Episode 21: Miss Tena Walters - Being A Breast Surgeon, Potter and Everywoman

On the episode today I have the pleasure of presenting Miss Tena Walters, Consultant Breast Surgeon. Tena has been a consultant surgeon since 1996 and now divides her time between surgical management of breast disease including breast cancer, as well as her interests in Art. Tena qualified from Barts Medical school in 1983 and completed her training in the South East of England. She was appointed Lecturer in Anatomy, and subsequently lecturer in Surgery on the Professorial Surgical Unit at Barts where she completed an MS thesis studying smooth muscle cell proliferation. In 1996 she was appointed as a Consultant in Breast Surgery at Queen Mary's Hospital and became Lead Clinician of the Breast Unit in 1998 and Lead Clinician in Oncology in 2002.

I met Tena as one of my supervising consultants whilst completing my junior doctor training in South East London. Her human and personable touch to not only patients but to us junior 'grunts' was unprecedented but welcomed. She has an infallible ability to touch the lives of her patients and those she comes into contact with, and this is evident from the podcast conversation. 

Tena goes into real detail on her early years as a surgeon, juggling small children and the monolithic training to pass the fellowship college exams as well as complete postgraduate research. Back in 1996, only 1 in 1000 surgeons were not only female, but had children at home. She shares her thoughts on the fabled '1 in 2 rota' at the Homerton Hospital, and we talk about PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder)in medicine. As the discussion evolves, Tena is open, transparent and very candid. But her sense of humour is all-conquering. We touch on psychopathic personality traits in surgery...good or bad - you decide?

Please enjoy this fantastic conversation with Miss Tena Walters