The History and Progress We Have Made – Closing the Gap Sn 1 Ep 3

Disclaimer: The view(s) expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the official policy or position of Brooke Army Medical Center, the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense or its components. Goals: Consider how...

The post The History and Progress We Have Made – Closing the Gap Sn 1 Ep 3 appeared first on FemInEM.

Disclaimer: The view(s) expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the official policy or position of Brooke Army Medical Center, the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense or its components.

Goals:

Consider how women have hid their identities in medical careers because of their gender
Discuss how women started in medicine
Illustrate progress thus far

Show guests:

Gloria Kuhn, DO, PhD

Diane Birnbaumer, MD

Historically, women have hid their gender to continue career pursuits

Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden

Hidden figures of NASA

JK Rowling

Encouraged to go by JK rather than JoAnne by publisher for public appeal

Margaret Ann Bulkley, also known as Dr. James Barry

First person to successfully perform a cesarean section in 1826 where both the mother and baby survived.
She hid her female identity until her death.
Discovered that she was a woman upon her autopsy. The British Army subsequently sealed the results for over 100 years.

Elizabeth Blackwell

First woman in the US to earn her M.D. in 1849.
Her admission to medical school was actually the result of a practical joke
Graduated #1 in her class
Established a hospital in which women could practice as physicians

Incorporated a free training program for nurses in her hospital
She later founded the Women’s Medical College

Driven to go into into medicine when a dying friend said to her that she would have been spared her worst suffering if her physician would had been a woman. Some articles today are reporting that sentiment is correct.

JAMA Internal Medicine in 2017 that showed that when female physicians are involved, 30 day mortality and readmissions rate are lower1

List of remarkable women in the history of medicine

Medscape slideshow
American Medical Association timeline

Gloria Kuhn, DO, MPH Interview

One of the first emergency medicine residents at Detroit General Hospital
While in medical school, co-students genuinely questioned her if women were smart enough to be physicians
Co-author of The Development of Best Practice Recommendations to Support the Hiring, Recruitment, and Advancement of Women Physicians in Emergency Medicine 2

Dr. Birnbaumer, MD Interview

Entered emergency medicine after nearly handicapping the UCSF Chair of Emergency Medicine, Mike Callahan, while she was at her crying spot during her internal medicine residency
Marginalization of women was a consistent barrier that created additional pressure during training

Personal residency examples

Head and neck surgeon claimed that although talented, women would undermine the structure of medicine because they only work part-time
Head of cardiothoracic surgery suggested that she was sleeping with the chief resident because of how high quality her presentation was

Discussion that women in training are not permitted to show the same vulnerability as male counterparts
30 years ago implicit bias didn’t exist—It was explicit. Open sexism was prevalent

One of the first women on faculty at her institution

Co-faculty, although nice, pushed her to go into stereotypical women’s groups, such as AAWEP, but actively discouraged from running for ACEP board

Women have steadily increased in numbers since she’s been in medicine. Now that the male: female ratio is narrowing, how should women partake in leadership?

Advocates for joining women specific groups for comradery and taking ideas to own institutions as well as non-women exclusive groups (i.e. ACEP)

Addressing implicit bias as its happening

Delicate process considering polarization of politics
Concerned these discussions can be reactionary rather than open and ultimately lead to progress
Avoid the labels and attempt address directly in an educational manner

Overall encourage by the number of women going into medicine and believes this generation is more vocal addressing gender discrepancies
If you believe someone is the person for a specific job, be sure to offer it to them and permit them to decide whether they’d like to take it on

References

Tsugawa, Yusuke, et al. “Comparison of Hospital Mortality and Readmission Rates for Medicare Patients Treated by Male vs Female Physicians.”JAMA Internal Medicine, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Feb. 2017, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27992617.
Choo, Esther K, et al. “The Development of Best Practice Recommendations to Support the Hiring, Recruitment, and Advancement of Women Physicians in Emergency Medicine.” Academic Emergency Medicine: Official Journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Nov. 2016, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27286760.

The post The History and Progress We Have Made – Closing the Gap Sn 1 Ep 3 appeared first on FemInEM.