The Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists

As I sit here writing a piece about work-life balance for women critical care physicians, I feel compelled to paint the picture of my current situation: in-house on call at 9pm on a Friday night, an AirPod in one ear teleconferencing my children to say goodnight, strapped into a portable breast pump, eating the fastest thing I could get from the hospital cafeteria (which is invariably fried), all while typing away at this piece in the physician work room. I am awash in irony. Is this the image of the prototypical woman intensivist? Not at all. Am I currently burned out? Actually, I don’t think so. Have I been burned out at some point during my medical career thus far? Definitely. How do I refine my career plan to achieve work-life balance and sustainability for a satisfying and productive professional career? Unclear, check back later.

Our realities changed during the pandemic and many people asked a very important question, possibly for the first time in their lives: what brings me joy and fulfilment? Is my choice of career a good fit for me? Outside of medicine, it is this feeling of being unfulfilled that has led to what is being dubbed ‘The Great Resignation’. Amongst physicians, the lack of connectedness and satisfaction with one’s specialty has led to high rates of burnout. Pre-pandemic literature on burnout suggested that engaged physicians tend to have less burnout. Engagement outside of clinical work can be driven by continued learning, faculty development and mentorship, having a social network and many more things. For me, engagement included interacting with my trainees, seeking ways to improve my clinical practice and finding mentorship from other physicians in my area of interest. This is where the role of belonging to a professional organization became very important.

A 2018 viewpoint published in JAMA Internal Medicine highlighted four archetypes of “mentorship”: the traditional mentor, the coach, the sponsor and the connector.¹ The authors explain, “To put it simply, the mentor guides, the coach improves, the sponsor nominates, and the connector empowers, but always the mentee benefits.” As I read this article, I was struck by how rare it is for one person to be able to fulfill all these needs, and how I was lucky enough to have a mentor, Dr. Hannah Wunsch, who can and does embody all four roles.

Where We Are

Over the past decade, the need to promote gender diversity in medicine has been embraced by several medical societies. In the USA in 2017, 33% of critical care trainees and 26% of ICU physicians were women. There are many reasons for this disparity and work is being done to understand these reasons to some extent. It was noted in literature that an explicit focus on “eliminating gender inequity will help to gradually change societal views of the roles played by women and men critical care physicians so that it will become the norm for women and men to be both critical care physicians and leaders in critical care.”

Read members-only job posts.

If you would like to post a job, please email a short description and/or PDF flyer including location, contact information, and closing date to SOCCA Society Director, Vivian Abalama, IOM, CAE at vabalama@iars.org.

Interchange seeks to deliver timely, relevant, and high-quality content to SOCCA members. Contributions from members are not only welcome but essential to ensure that Interchange meets these goals. If you are interested in authoring content concerning clinical challenges, emerging research findings, member accomplishments, or anything of general interest to the membership, please reach out to vabalama@iars.org.

SOCCA is pleased to announce the debut of the Innovators Award. Created through a generous anonymous donation, we plan to award one deserving recipient $10,000 for a true innovation, that is, something that introduces a new device or technique, changes clinical practice or could improve clinical outcomes. The innovation should be expected to have an immediate effect on health care delivery. This award is an extension of the Society’s growing interests in research, education and engagement. We encourage interested members to apply.

Colleagues, as you all know, our road trip to Hawaii was canceled due to COVID, again. However, our Education Committee and the IARS rallied and quickly changed gears to a 100% virtual annual meeting. Although we all missed seeing each other in person, the meeting was incredibly successful and well attended. At the SOCCA annual meeting on Friday, we had four very lively educational sessions and aligned sessions with the IARS, AUA, and SOCCA. We then ended the day with our young investigator award presentations. On Saturday, the next day was the IARS | AUA | SOCCA aligned meeting day. We sponsored a review course lecture and a panel on evidence-based emergency airway management, which generated many comments and discussions.

On behalf of the SOCCA Education Committee, we would like to thank you all for another successful SOCCA Annual meeting this past spring. While we were disappointed that the increase in COVID cases led to a last-minute transition to a virtual format, the enthusiasm for educational talks, presentations of current research, and networking opportunities could not be fettered.

The members of the SOCCA Research Committee are moving into summer with great energy and enthusiasm. Our members have continued to advance a variety of initiatives in support of the SOCCA vision “to promote and advocate for current and future critical care anesthesiologists through collaboration and innovative patient care.”