We asked our Women Surgeons to share with us their Holiday traditions and some of their favorite memories of the holidays.
Please enjoy these delightful stories from fellow AWS members -- and feel free to share your own in the Comments.
Happy Holidays from all of us on the Blog team and the AWS!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kandace P. McGuire, MD, FACS
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Director Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship & Premenopausal Breast Services
Magee Womens Hospital of UPMC
What holiday do you celebrate and what is the special meaning of this
holiday to you?
My family and I celebrate Christmas. We have celebrated many ways on many days and on multiple continents over the years! To me, Christmas is about family and giving. I love reconnecting with those I have lost touch with and being able to give to them and others during the holiday season.
What are some family traditions you have related to this holiday?
We have many family traditions, but my favorite is our annual trip to NYC. We take our son to see the tree in Rockefeller Center and to FAO Schwartz. We also take him to a restaurant that wouldn’t normally be “kid-friendly”. Last year we went to Le Cirque. He was such a little gentleman; they invited him into the kitchen to make his own dessert with the pastry chef! The 80 year old owner stopped us on the way out and complimented us on our well-behaved child. Pretty special!
We also have a tradition of giving to a child in need every year. I try to choose a boy who is about the same age as my son, so that he can pick out gifts that he would like and then give them away. Every Christmas morning we try to remember how special this Christmas must be for the little boy to whom we gave.
Do you have a good memory of patient care during a time you worked during
the holiday?
I was on trauma call for Christmas Eve my second year of residency. A funny story is a family of four who came in after a minor motor vehicle collision. They were spread out throughout the trauma bay: mother, father, two boys. Unfortunately, Dad was driving without a license and when the cops came to talk to him, you could hear one of the boys from around the corner yell, “Is Dad getting arrested AGAIN?!?”
Luckily, the cops gave him a summons and let him go home to enjoy Christmas with his family.
A nice memory is later that night, going across the street from the hospital to the only restaurant open, a diner that served the hospital and the local Philly old-timers. The entire trauma team crowded into a booth, ordered black and white milkshakes and burgers and traded war stories. We were blessed by no major traumas that night and no sad endings. It was one of my most memorable nights on call during my residency.
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Happy Holidays from the AWS!
We asked our Women Surgeons to share with us their Holiday traditions and some of their favorite memories of the holidays – both at home and work.
Please enjoy these delightful stories from members of the Association of Women Surgeons -- and feel free to share your own in the Comments.
Happy Holidays from all of us on the Blog team and the AWS!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stephanie Bonne, MD, FACS
Assistant Professor
Trauma, Acute, and Critical Care Surgery
Washington University in St. Louis
What holiday do you celebrate and what is the special meaning of this
holiday to you?
We celebrate Christmas - I was raised Catholic and that's just the way it is!
What are some family traditions you have related to this holiday?
My mother's family is Polish, so we have a very traditional dinner on Christmas Eve with mushroom soup, fish, pierogi and picked Herring.
Do you have a good memory of patient care during a time you worked during
the holiday?
For the past several years, I've worked 6pm-6am over Christmas in the ICU. I kind of like it - there is a ton of food to eat, everyone is kind of cozy and happy. We watch NORAD tracks Santa at the nurses' station. The patient's families are usually in in the evenings and you can walk around and say hello to everyone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Callie Thompson, MD
Resident
What holiday do you celebrate and what is the special meaning of this
holiday to you?
We celebrate Christmas. For me, the holiday is a time of new beginnings and hope. I love spending this time of year with my family and seeing my children enjoy the same traditions that I loved as a kid.
What are some family traditions you have related to this holiday?
My family is very big on tradition so we try to do the same thing every year. We start by going to church on Christmas Eve and this year, my two oldest children are both in the Christmas play so I am really looking forward to that. On Christmas morning we open stockings and then have to have breakfast before we move to the presents from Santa. We are open-one-at-a-time-while-everyone-watches people.
Do you have a good memory of patient care during a time you worked during
the holiday?
My favorite holiday memory in the hospital would be from Christmas day my R2 year in the cardiothoracic ICU. All of the patients were critically ill but the nursing staff decorated and had a potluck that they invited the families to participate in. I just love the memory of the atmosphere in the unit that day.
Please enjoy these delightful stories from members of the Association of Women Surgeons -- and feel free to share your own in the Comments.
Happy Holidays from all of us on the Blog team and the AWS!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stephanie Bonne, MD, FACS
Assistant Professor
Trauma, Acute, and Critical Care Surgery
Washington University in St. Louis
What holiday do you celebrate and what is the special meaning of this
holiday to you?
We celebrate Christmas - I was raised Catholic and that's just the way it is!
What are some family traditions you have related to this holiday?
My mother's family is Polish, so we have a very traditional dinner on Christmas Eve with mushroom soup, fish, pierogi and picked Herring.
Do you have a good memory of patient care during a time you worked during
the holiday?
For the past several years, I've worked 6pm-6am over Christmas in the ICU. I kind of like it - there is a ton of food to eat, everyone is kind of cozy and happy. We watch NORAD tracks Santa at the nurses' station. The patient's families are usually in in the evenings and you can walk around and say hello to everyone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Callie Thompson, MD
Resident
What holiday do you celebrate and what is the special meaning of this
holiday to you?
We celebrate Christmas. For me, the holiday is a time of new beginnings and hope. I love spending this time of year with my family and seeing my children enjoy the same traditions that I loved as a kid.
What are some family traditions you have related to this holiday?
My family is very big on tradition so we try to do the same thing every year. We start by going to church on Christmas Eve and this year, my two oldest children are both in the Christmas play so I am really looking forward to that. On Christmas morning we open stockings and then have to have breakfast before we move to the presents from Santa. We are open-one-at-a-time-while-everyone-watches people.
Do you have a good memory of patient care during a time you worked during
the holiday?
My favorite holiday memory in the hospital would be from Christmas day my R2 year in the cardiothoracic ICU. All of the patients were critically ill but the nursing staff decorated and had a potluck that they invited the families to participate in. I just love the memory of the atmosphere in the unit that day.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Why I Started Tweeting and Blogging
by Sophia K. McKinley
For years, I limited my participation in social media: my tendency is to untag all photos of myself on Facebook, and as recently as six months ago I had never visited Twitter.com. I do have some experience writing personal travel blogs, but the main purpose of those online posts was to communicate to an audience of one (Hi, Mom) that I was safe and sound despite being thousands of miles away from home. If you had asked me a year ago why I wasn’t more engaged with the online community, I would have responded that I was too introverted and private, or that I had nothing worth sharing with other people.
Today, I have a Twitter account and have written blog posts for both the Association of Women Surgeons and the Association of Academic Surgeons. I’ve even explored options for launching a personal website, though instead of describing which remote destination I’ve visited, this website will outline my research interests and link to my Twitter feed.
It sounds implausible, but I began to overcome my hesitation to develop an online presence through an old-fashioned essay writing course. The instructor, Nancy Sommers, embraces a philosophy that everyone has a story to tell and that the world is better off when those stories are shared. The essays my classmates wrote were fascinating not because they were perfectly polished, but because they were genuine and authentic. Their stories were interesting and full of meaning, and I found myself thinking this might also be true of my own life. I was forced to reconsider my assumption that I had nothing to contribute to a larger conversation.
The next experience that pushed me to become more active in social media was hearing a talk by Dr. Mary L. Brandt at the Women in Surgery Career Symposium in San Francisco. Dr. Brandt provided an outline for creating an online presence and reviewed useful applications for tweeting and blogging, but the most important thing I learned was that the online world is still dominated by written language. Previously, I thought that the kinds of individuals who shared frequently online would be extroverts who easily navigate cocktail parties and always have a snappy verbal reply at the ready. I’m most confident when communicating through writing, so viewing tweeting and blogging as forms of writing made these activities less daunting.
There continue to be moments when I cringe at the thought of other people reading my tweets and blog entries. Sometimes I wonder if I am oversharing, or if I’ve only added noise to an already crowded internet. What keeps me stepping outside my comfort zone and hitting that “tweet” button one more time is the overwhelmingly positive feedback on what I have already transmitted into cyberspace. Just a few tweets and blog posts have led to productive face-to-face networking opportunities with other medical students, surgical residents, and even leading surgeons.
I may never stop untagging photos on Facebook, but I now consider Twitter and the blogosphere as additional writing venues within my professional life. Whatever hesitations you may have about establishing an online presence, I’d urge you to be courageous and dip a toe into the social media waters. Not as warm as a Balinese beach, but that’s a post for a totally different blog.
Sophia is a dual-degree M.D./Ed.M. student at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She received the 2012 Association of Women Surgeons Patricia Numann Medical Student Award and spent a year as a Zuckerman fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School. Sophia is passionate about medical education, and she hopes to be an academic surgeon who brings educationally-sound innovations to surgical training. Her clinical interests are gastrointestinal and minimally invasive surgery. Sophia is in the process of applying for general surgery residency for the 2014 Match cycle.
For years, I limited my participation in social media: my tendency is to untag all photos of myself on Facebook, and as recently as six months ago I had never visited Twitter.com. I do have some experience writing personal travel blogs, but the main purpose of those online posts was to communicate to an audience of one (Hi, Mom) that I was safe and sound despite being thousands of miles away from home. If you had asked me a year ago why I wasn’t more engaged with the online community, I would have responded that I was too introverted and private, or that I had nothing worth sharing with other people.
Today, I have a Twitter account and have written blog posts for both the Association of Women Surgeons and the Association of Academic Surgeons. I’ve even explored options for launching a personal website, though instead of describing which remote destination I’ve visited, this website will outline my research interests and link to my Twitter feed.
It sounds implausible, but I began to overcome my hesitation to develop an online presence through an old-fashioned essay writing course. The instructor, Nancy Sommers, embraces a philosophy that everyone has a story to tell and that the world is better off when those stories are shared. The essays my classmates wrote were fascinating not because they were perfectly polished, but because they were genuine and authentic. Their stories were interesting and full of meaning, and I found myself thinking this might also be true of my own life. I was forced to reconsider my assumption that I had nothing to contribute to a larger conversation.
The next experience that pushed me to become more active in social media was hearing a talk by Dr. Mary L. Brandt at the Women in Surgery Career Symposium in San Francisco. Dr. Brandt provided an outline for creating an online presence and reviewed useful applications for tweeting and blogging, but the most important thing I learned was that the online world is still dominated by written language. Previously, I thought that the kinds of individuals who shared frequently online would be extroverts who easily navigate cocktail parties and always have a snappy verbal reply at the ready. I’m most confident when communicating through writing, so viewing tweeting and blogging as forms of writing made these activities less daunting.
There continue to be moments when I cringe at the thought of other people reading my tweets and blog entries. Sometimes I wonder if I am oversharing, or if I’ve only added noise to an already crowded internet. What keeps me stepping outside my comfort zone and hitting that “tweet” button one more time is the overwhelmingly positive feedback on what I have already transmitted into cyberspace. Just a few tweets and blog posts have led to productive face-to-face networking opportunities with other medical students, surgical residents, and even leading surgeons.
I may never stop untagging photos on Facebook, but I now consider Twitter and the blogosphere as additional writing venues within my professional life. Whatever hesitations you may have about establishing an online presence, I’d urge you to be courageous and dip a toe into the social media waters. Not as warm as a Balinese beach, but that’s a post for a totally different blog.
~~~
Sophia is a dual-degree M.D./Ed.M. student at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She received the 2012 Association of Women Surgeons Patricia Numann Medical Student Award and spent a year as a Zuckerman fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School. Sophia is passionate about medical education, and she hopes to be an academic surgeon who brings educationally-sound innovations to surgical training. Her clinical interests are gastrointestinal and minimally invasive surgery. Sophia is in the process of applying for general surgery residency for the 2014 Match cycle.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)