From Match to First Promotion Webinar Series: Ensuring a Seat at the Virtual Table

By Taylor Stavely, MD and Wendy Sun, MD on behalf of SAEM Residents and Medical Students and the SAEM Academy for Women in Academic Emergency Medicine The second installment of the AWAEM and RAMS collaborative webinar From Match to First Promotion focused upon the new landscape of virtual academic conferencing and promotion during the pandemic. There was particular attention paid to how to get the most of virtual conferences, mentee best practices, Twitter usage, and how to battle the tenure clock in the pandemic. The webinar panelists were Dr. Devjani Das (Columbia University Medical Center), Dr. Alexandra “Lexie” Mannix (University of Florida - Jacksonville), Dr. Taylor Stavely (Emory University), and Dr. Wendy Sun (Yale-New Haven Health). The increasing entry of women in medicine has revealed much about the gendered politics of having a seat at the table, but what if the table is now virtual?

Top 10 Pearls From the Webinar

1. Pre-existing racial and gender disparities have been amplified by the pandemic, with women and underrepresented minorities in medicine being the most vulnerable for career disruption.1 2. Women, especially mothers, are disproportionately affected by pandemic driven changes in childcare and schooling, altering their household responsibilities.2 3. You should take advantage of the improved accessibility of virtual conferencing but be wary of the distractions at home (clinical or otherwise) that may diminish your focus on the conference. 4. Consider the use of an email away message while attending conferences such as: “My engagement with [conference] until [date] requires that I divert my attention from email and other administrative tasks. Please contact [X] for any urgent matters, or to schedule a meeting after I return.” 5. Annotate your CV to describe your frontline clinical responsibilities, COVID-19-related community service, and any pandemic-related disruptions in research, education, or speaking opportunities. (See reference 1 for examples)

6. Mentors are like mirrors to help you see yourself clearly and offer guidance. Sponsors provide endorsement and identify opportunities for career advancement. A mentor and sponsor may or may not be the same person. 7. Come to your mentor prepared with questions, commitment, and actions completed. The mentor is not there to do the work for you! 8. Extensions of the tenure clock only partially address gender inequity in promotion — a disparity even more pronounced by the pandemic. Promotions committees should adjust benchmarks to consider innovative contributions to community service, advocacy, media, and teaching.3 9. Twitter is an excellent tool for engaging with others in medicine and developing mentors! 10. If using Twitter during a conference, take screenshots of presentations to share information and use @mentions and conference #hashtags. You’ll be surprised at the activity you generate!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Dr. Stavely is an emergency medicine resident at Emory University School of Medicine.

Dr. Sun is an emergency medicine resident at Yale University. She is the 2021-2022 RAMS Board president.