Author: Judy Romero


- Leadership Power Tool #2: Define your terms—first—before anyone else does. As writer Nora Ephron said in a graduation speech to Wellesley college class of 1996: “Above all, be the heroine of your life.” Physicians can walk a tough line when it comes to holding power—doctors may ostracize a colleague who has become too “administrative,” while management often doesn’t recognize a physician as a true leader because of lack of training. But if you are clear about what your terms of engagement will be—what matters to you and what your boundaries are—it becomes easier to assert yourself as a leader and influencer.
- Leadership Power Tool #8, or Employ Every Medium. Use personal, social, and traditional media every step of the way. This means taking to social media, starting a blog, a website, submitting to Op Eds—choose the authentic ways that you can express your voice. Social networks exclusively for doctors can help facilitate professional connections, while a larger social media platform like Twitter is a good place to share and produce content that people can relate to and find helpful. Being a thought leader and having a strong digital footprint will not only be good for your career, as more and more patients are finding their physicians online, but will also help you network with and find a community with other female physicians facing similar difficulties.
- Leadership Power Tool #5, Carpe the Chaos, teaches that moments of rapid change can work to your advantage—for in chaos is opportunity. Those are the times when people are by necessity open to new ways of doing things, and if you can propose an innovation or solution, you are more likely to be able to get people to try it out than when times are in stasis. Let’s face it: the paradigm shift in medicine has been occurring for over two centuries. The days when doctors would go on house-calls and care for a patient from birth to death have replaced by a system where doctors have to cram more work into shorter appointments, and overall want more time with their patients.
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Gloria Feldt is cofounder and president of Take The Lead with the mission of gender parity in all sectors by 2025. Author of four books, she teaches “Women, Power, and Leadership” at Arizona State University and is former president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. @GloriaFeldt There are so many ways that women can support each other, especially at work. Lean In provides practical suggestions to encourage and promote the success of other women, whether it’s celebrating their accomplishments or committing the time and energy to be a mentor. Are you being paid less than your male colleagues? If so, this article provides a step-by-step guide to asking for a raise. With these practical suggestions, females in any industry can move forward with confidence and prepared to discuss issues backed by data. A Harvard Business Review piece penned by physicians advocates for leadership training to be formally integrated into medical and residency training curricula. The authors argue that leadership skills and management practices can positively influence both patient and healthcare organization outcomes and that systems should be developed to alleviate biases that disregard the leadership capabilities of women and minorities. This reflective piece written by female CEO Carrie Rich gives tangible advice on how to grow as a leader. Read about her 10 tips to incorporate into your own career and personal leadership journey. Women continue to be underrepresented in leadership positions. In this TED Talk, Sheryl Sandberg looks at why a smaller percentage of women reach the top of their professions and offers three pieces of advice to women aiming for leadership positions. Medical schools are slowly becoming more diverse according to a research letter published in JAMA which examined the changing demographics of medical students from 2002 to 2017. NPR noted that researchers believe that the increase in diversity enrollment may be attributed to a 2009 guideline requiring that all medical schools implement policies that help attract and retain more diverse students. Reuters reports that a study published in JAMA Network Open found that minority resident physicians routinely deal with bias during their training. Although blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans together make up one-third of the nation’s population, these three minorities make up just 9% of physicians. The authors note that addressing these unique challenges related to race/ethnicity is crucial to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment and minimizing potential damage to the minority pipeline. Women admitted to the hospital with heart attacks are more likely to survive if they are treated by female doctors, reported The Atlantic in a piece that also examines the enduring male bias in coronary heart disease research. The study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences also found that male doctors were better at treating women with heart attacks when they had more experience treating these patients, and especially when they worked in hospitals with more female doctors. According to a recent letter in the Annals of Internal Medicine, disparities in compensation and career advancement persist for women physicians in the United States. Data from a survey of the American College of Physicians (ACP) internists found that the median annual salary for men is $50,000 higher than that for women.
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