Women in Critical Care: One-Year Anniversary

One Year (and Counting!) of Action and Engagement

With the Women in Critical Care (WICC) section's one-year anniversary, we presented several initiatives accomplished in the past year at the SOCCA 2023 annual business meeting. We have shared several Interchange articles, Fireside chats, and two webinars that have been well received—one on Wellness and a recent webinar on strategies to enhance women applicants in CCM.

In the past year, we have surveyed our 63 members, shared the results on the SOCCA website, and formulated a white paper on recommendations for organizations and societies regarding the working environment for women in critical care. We are planning four further Fireside Chats with the next one featuring Dr. Margaret Wood in June!

We are also undertaking a mixed methods study on the global underrepresentation of Women in CCM in leadership with Dr. Siddiqui as PI, under the mentorship of Dr. Rebecca Aslakson and several of our members as part of the team. At the SOCCA 2023 meeting, the WICC group held a reception in the hotel lobby in conjunction with the Early Career Intensivists group which was attended by several SOCCA members and the Board.

Podcast

We are also proud to launch a new initiative by our Vice Chair Dr. Kirsten Steffner and Steering Committee member Dr. Amanda Kore Schilling. This is a new podcast miniseries in collaboration with Stanford Medcast on non-clinical but highly relevant to the practice of CCM topics. The first episode is  “The Underestimation of Influence,” featuring Dr. Vanessa Bohns of Cornell University.

Dr. Kirsten Steffner is a Cardiothoracic Anesthesiologist and Intensivist trained at Columbia University and current faculty at the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine. Her enthusiasm for this initiative and drive to bring this to fruition is exemplary. Listening to these podcasts can help provide clarity and a much-needed reprieve for the busy woman intensivist who has many competing demands from work and home.

Dr. Amanda Kore Schilling is an intensivist and a new mom of little Mia Schilling. She works as an intensivist at the Tucson Medical Center after completing a CCM fellowship at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Amanda says that being a mother is the greatest accomplishment of her life.

We sincerely believe these initiatives add value to the SOCCA membership and would welcome further support for our efforts. Visit SOCCA’S Women in Critical Care.

Author

Shahla Siddiqui, MD, MBBS, MSc, FCCM

Co-Chair, SOCCA Women in Critical Care Working Group

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Boston, Massachusetts