Experts inspire future surgeons at Women In Surgery networking event
Two expert panels of female surgeons, including senior consultants and surgical trainees, recently shared their journeys into surgery with Monash medical students at the annual Women In Surgery Networking Evening.
Hosted by the Monash University Surgical Interest Group (MUSIG) in collaboration with the Monash University Medical Society (MUMUS) Gender Equity Committee, the guest speakers offered valuable insights and learnings about their careers with the audience of aspiring young surgeons.
Guest speakers included senior consultants Dr Suellyn Centauri, Dr Pamela Boekel, Dr Amiria Lynch and Associate Professor Caroline Dowling, and surgical trainees Dr Judy Wang, Dr Hannah Tan, Dr Leah Sleaby, Dr Charlene Munasinghe and Dr Lisa Ellis. The night was a full circle moment for Dr Pamela Boekel, who was one of the original founders of MUSIG while she was a medical student at Monash.
Final year medical student and Co-Chair of MUSIG Aya Basam said that the event was an opportunity to celebrate women who have forged their own paths in surgery, and to learn from their determination, passion and experience.
“Hearing female surgeons talk about the need to assert themselves in male-dominated environments, stay authentic while standing up for yourself and others, and balance work and caring responsibilities was very valuable,” Aya said. “Our event aimed to offer a safe space to discuss the issues that do still exist, while celebrating all the positive progress that women have made.”
“In organising this event, MUSIG and the MUMUS Gender Equity Committee wanted to ensure that no medical student with an interest in surgery feels excluded or dissuaded due to their gender, and that a career in surgery is accessible to everyone, regardless of your background,” Aya said.
MUSIG is a student-run group that offers surgical skills, networking and educational events for those with an interest in pursuing a career in surgery. An aspiring general surgeon, Aya joined after discovering that she enjoyed studying anatomy in second year, and loved being in the team environment of the operating theatre while doing her surgical rotation in her third year of study. The MUMUS Gender Equity Committee raises awareness and supports initiatives that promote gender equity in medicine, so it made sense for the two groups to collaborate in producing the event.
Associate Professor Caroline Dowling, guest speaker, consultant urologist and Co-Director of Medical Student Programs at Eastern Health Clinical School, said that surgical practice is an exciting and highly rewarding career, but training is hard and surgeons need to have passion for their work. “We’ve seen many changes for the better for both surgeons, surgeons in training and their patients over the 20 years I have been a urologist”, she said. “The event with MUSIG and MUMUS was enormously enjoyable and the stories from my junior colleagues and the training surgeons inspirational. I hope the students found it so too!”
Aya said that it was important to break down old stereotypes that surgery was still male-dominated and often hostile to women. “Since our patients aren’t all men, it’s important that surgeons aren’t all men either, and that we bring a diversity of people to our operating theatres,” she said. “And, if you’re a woman considering a career in surgery, it’s important to know that there’s no reason why you can’t, and there’s plenty of women who’ve gone before you.”
About Monash University
Monash University is Australia’s largest university with more than 80,000 students. In the 60 years since its foundation, it has developed a reputation for world-leading high-impact research, quality teaching, and inspiring innovation.
With four campuses in Australia and a presence in Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia and Italy, it is one of the most internationalised Australian universities.
As a leading international medical research university with the largest medical faculty in Australia and integration with leading Australian teaching hospitals, we consistently rank in the top 50 universities worldwide for clinical, pre-clinical and health sciences.
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