WOMEN’S COMMITTEE UPDATE By Nicole Vigh DO, MPH
A GET INVOLVED ACOEP’s Committee for Women in Emergency Medicine is seeking a medical student and a resident representative. To learn more and get into “the room where it happens,” email Association Manager, Joanne Kubinski at JKubinski@acoep.org.
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THE PULSE WINTER 2022
lthough we were hoping for an in-person conference, with such a quick transition to a virtual platform, the Women’s Committee was thrilled to have such a great turnout for the virtual ACOEP Scientific Assembly this year! As always, our women’s track lectures were exceptional! Dr. Erica Howe, a board-certified Hospitalist and a nationally known educator, wife and mother, gave her talk entitled “Gaining Clarity in Your Clinical Career and Beyond”. Dr. Howe is an advocate for wellness in medicine, and she has given many talks on topics like conflict management and boundary setting. In 2018, she founded the Women Physicians Wellness Conference as a way of bringing female physicians together to share their struggles and their strategies for success. She discussed an issue which many of us are guilty of, that is, saying yes to every opportunity that comes our way in order to improve our CV. However, in doing this many of us are left feeling overwhelmed and unsure of the direction we want to take our careers. Dr. Howe’s lecture discussed ways to maintain control in our work and home environment, set boundaries and how to say no to commitments that put a
strain on our lives and replacing that with commitments that inspire us both in our work and home lives. We were also delighted to be joined by Dr. Shana Ross, an Associate Program Director and the Director of Simulation, Curriculum and Conferences for the University of Illinois, Chicago. Dr. Ross has expertise in medical education and is currently completing a Masters in Health Professional Education. She is passionate about improving resident education through innovation and simulation. Her talk entitled “Building a Board of Mentors” discussed changing the way mentorship is traditionally viewed in medicine. She discussed the advantages of having a board of advisors, with each board member serving a different purpose, as well as returning the favor and being on someone else’s board of advisors. Dr. Howe and Dr. Ross left us all feeling inspired and optimistic for our future careers! In honor of breast cancer awareness month in October, we had a panel of speakers who discussed how breast cancer had affected their lives. Our panelists included Dr. Patricia Robinson, an associate professor at the Loyola University
