Post by Dhanyata Narendra

What a start to June 😃 1️⃣ Tuesday: York. Motte-and-bailey walls, Viking history, and somewhat fittingly, a room full of women dismantling barriers in surgery. The Women in Surgical Research Conference did not disappoint. Professor Amy Grove's work resonated greatly. Her research on how occupational culture perpetuates inequality in orthopaedics put language to something many of us have felt but struggled to articulate: the hidden curriculum, the impossible standard of infallibility, the quiet erasure of feeling interchangeable and undervalued. Over 50% of medical school entrants are women. That becomes 30% entering Orthopaedic Specialty Training. And just 7% at the most senior orthopaedic ranks. The pipe leaks. The ones who stay are left holding the bucket. It is sustained by spaces like this, and a resilience that frankly shouldn't be so necessary. 2️⃣ Friday: Back to London. Different room. Different energy. Same awe. Somehow I found myself presenting to a room of orthopaedic surgeons, trainees, the Director of UCLMS, and my school friends trying to fit in at the Annual Royal Free London Orthopaedic Society Meeting. Topic = whether surgeons should perform a lateral extra-articular tenodesis alongside an ACL reconstruction. Preparation = intense. Special shoutout to Mo for sitting with me for hours on end. Learning curve = steeper than any I've faced since dissertation days. Love-hate relationship with academia = very much still alive and kicking. This research grew out of my intercalated BSc in Surgical Sciences, and none of it would have been possible without an incredible team. Huge thank you to Pierre Gélat, Mattia FM Gerli, Amy Still, Sofyan Al Shdefat, Mohammed Shaath, and last but not least Akash Patel Two very different rooms this week. Both reminded me why exposure matters, as well as why a good support system matters too (ft. post-academia, pre-exam getaway to see some magnificent chalk). #WomenInSurgery #Orthopaedics #MedicalEducation #SurgicalTraining #WomenInMedicine #GenderEquity #ACLReconstruction #SportsMedicine #Intercalation #MedStudent #FutureOrthopod #NHSTraining #RoyalFree #AcademicMedicine #ResearchLife