Editor’s Note: This account discusses the positive benefits that participation in sports can bring to one’s professional training and life.
Looking back, I wish some things had been different, but I would make no major changes to my career in orthopaedic surgery. I do think that the present is a better time to practice orthopaedics than when I entered the field. The pathways for young women are now much “rosier”.
Do I think women who were athletes have an easier time negotiating the world of orthopaedics? Yes, there is no question that being an athlete teaches one how to work in a team and how to be a leader. Sports teach us that there will be bad days and bad losses. This pours over into orthopaedics where each exam and each patient’s care will not always be “a win.” In both instances, life must continue.
I was an athlete and have daughters who are student-athletes so that, perhaps, makes me biased. I feel that lessons learned through sports participation can be as important as lessons learned in the classroom.
I counsel young women training in orthopaedics that, at times, when they must work harder than their male counterparts, it will pay off. They must apply the skills and common sense they have learned in sports to the practice of orthopaedic surgery. “Be so good at what you do that they can’t ignore you.”
These skills can also be useful in negotiating a marriage and in child rearing:
• Decide what is important.
• Assemble your team.
• Understand how to balance priorities.