The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) hosts conversations and interviews with people in the community, discussing current issues, common questions, and we can do to best protect the public and support the safe delivery of health care in Australia.
Ahpra recently launched the Taking care podcast which features a two-part series on women in surgery. The series has interviews with Dr Victoria Atkinson, Dr Vera Sallen, Dr Pecky De Silva and Dr Christine Lai.
Meeting women in surgery - Part 1
In this episode, host Susan Biggar talks with two women in surgery, Dr Victoria Atkinson, cardiac surgeon and Chief Medical Officer of Healthscope and Dr Vera Sallen, orthopaedic surgeon. This is part one of a two-part series on women in surgery. In professions that are underrepresented by women, we hear what this means for the women who work in surgery, and what changes they would like to see. Victoria and Vera tell us their stories of becoming surgeons, successes they see around them as well as frustrations they still feel.
They tell us about the feeling when they look around the theatre and they are surrounded by women, what it felt like to progress through their careers as female surgeons and the pros and cons of quotas in their workplace.
Meeting women in surgery - Part 2
In this episode, host Susan Biggar talks with two women in surgery, vascular surgeon, Dr Pecky De Silva, and breast, endocrine and general surgeon, Dr Christine Lai. This is part two of a two-part series on women in surgery. In professions that are underrepresented by women, we hear what this means for the women who work in surgery, and what changes they would like to see.
Pecky and Christine share their training paths and some of the barriers and assumptions they’ve encountered as they have progressed through their careers. They talk about the support they received within the profession and how having greater female representation amongst surgeons is important for patient safety and better outcomes.