The Medical Women Podcast

Hello!

Over the weekend, you may have spotted that NHS England decommissioned practitioner health services for secondary care doctors.... and then did a U turn yesterday! Good to know that we can all use our voices to collaborate and make change.

This week's episode explores the sensitive topic of doctors mental health. Our guest this week is someone who bravely and openly shares their experiences on social media.

It's time to have the conversations that don't always happen.

Please know that if you are struggling, you are not alone. You can seek help at:

https://www.practitionerhealth.nhs.uk/

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjww_iwBhApEiwAuG6ccLRvBlfGqQ5vtFSFG-U2igliX3z5pGntfZaxRz6M6SZYHf27RqOt9BoCreoQAvD_BwE

Hello everyone! Happy April!

This week's episode is perfect for this time of year when it is Spring and we're all feeling exhausted from winter. Post pandemic, burnout has reached record levels in staff working in healthcare around the world.

Dr Claire Ashley is a GP, burnout specialist and clinical entrepreneur on a mission to help overwhelmed professionals, entrepreneurs and businesses to recognise, prevent and overcome burnout and other mental wellbeing problems in the workplace. In this episode, we cover how to recognise burnout, how we can prevent and treat it.

** Our Spring conference is on 10th May in Cambridge **

Hello!!! Welcome to Season 5 of the podcast!

We're kicking off with the amazing Dr Tamsin Holland Brown - paediatrician, founder of Hear Glue Ear and mum of five. Tamsin shares with us her journey of becoming a clinical entrepreneur and how she juggles that with all her other plates!

Hello, happy International Women's Day 2024! This year's theme is Inspire Inclusion which is what the MWF is all about.

We're doing a recast of our special episode hearing from all our Past Presidents of the MWF. This episode first aired for IWD 2022 and is one of our most listened to episodes.

** Our Spring Conference in Cambridge is on 10th May and we would love to see you there! **

Welcome back to The Medical Women Podcast!

It's the season of applications and interviews in the medical world, so I thought you might appreciate a boost in your confidence and owning your achievements.

This week's guest is the fabulous life coach and author, Tiwalola Ogunlesi. Tiwa runs a company called Confident and Killing it. She is on a mission to help us unlock our most confident selves.

Storytelling is a really important skill for speaking to patients, presentations and pitching. Yet it is not a skill that we are routinely taught at medical school.

This week's guest is actor and coach Serena Evans. In this episode, Serena shares her top tips for connecting with your audience and telling a great story.

** Save the date - our MWF Spring Conference is on Friday 10th May 2024 in Cambridge **

Do you get nervous when you need to give a presentation, presenting patients on ward round, or speaking at a meeting?

We all have a voice, and to be empowered to use our voice, we have the fabulous singer and executive voice coach Anouska Taylor as our guest this week. Anouska shares exercises we can all do to look after our voices and to speak with confidence.

** SAVE THE DATE - Our MWF Spring Conference is on Friday 10th May 2024 in Cambridge **

"You're ambitious". It's sometimes used in a negative way to describe a woman. But let's claim being ambitious and owning our worth.

Welcome to the fourth episode of our mini-series on women's health, sponsored by Health Innovation Kent Surrey and Sussex.

In this episode, we hear from dermatologist and author Dr Anjali Mahto. Anjali explains what products we actually need to use on our skin at different stages of our lives.

Last week was World Menopause Day so this week we have the second episode on this very important topic.

This week's guest is Dr Louise Newson, GP and menopause specialist. Louise shares with us how we can manage and support women during menopause. A must listen for all of us.

Hello!

18th October is World Menopause Day so we are covering this important topic this week and next week!

Our guest this week is the fantastic Katharine Gale - Consultant Nurse, Coach and Trainer and Director of FluxState. Katharine supports women through menopause to that they can continue to work and enjoy their lives.

Hello!

Welcome to this special mini series on women's health which is a collaboration with Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex who we are delighted to have as sponsors of these episodes.

Dr Nuthana is joined by Dr MaryAnn Ferroux, Medical Director of HIKSS to introduce this series and episode.

Our guest today is Jess Kasriel who is a nutritionist specialising in helping women to optimise their fertility. Jess shares how she went from a pro tennis player to nutritionist and top tips on how we use nutrition and exercise to support ourselves at different stages of our menstrual cycle and to optimise fertility.

We hope you find this a really helpful episode!

We have a very special announcement to make - we have made membership to the MWF only £5 for all medical students!

Hello!

We've got two fabulous guests on the podcast this week. Dr Chelcie Jewitt and Dr Becky Cox, so-founders of Surving in Scrubs. Sexism, sexual harassment, and sexual assault are commonplace in the healthcare workforce. Becky and Chelcie launched Surviving in Scrubs to tackle this problem, giving a voice to women and non-binary survivors in healthcare to raise awareness; and to end sexism, sexual harassment, and sexual assault in healthcare.

Hello lovely listeners!

Today's wonderful guest is Miss Samantha Tross, the UK's first female of Afro-Caribbean descent to become a Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic surgeon.

Many of us won't be the 'first' to do something, but this is a fabulous example of someone being what they can't see. Sam speaks about the importance of mentorship and sponsorship, and how we can sponsor trainees.

Hello! Welcome to Season 4, the season of 'how to....'

Our guest today is the fabulous comedian and author Viv Groskop. Viv has written several best selling books including her newest book Happy High Status. Viv herself is a podcaster and host of How to own the room.

In this episode, we discuss what happy high status is, top tips from how to own the room and from Viv's career in stand-up comedy.

Viv’s books mentioned in the podcast:

Hello everyone!

Season 4 of The Medical Women Podcast is coming up and here's a sneak peak of this 'How to....' season.

Good luck to all those starting new rotations today, and a very warm welcome to our new FY1 colleagues!!

The first Wednesday in August marks changeover for most trainees in the UK. This is one of our most popular episodes which we are recasting - our junior doctor members share their top tips for changeover and starting FY1.

Dr Anthea Mowat was Honorary Secretary of the Medical Women's Federation until January 2023 when she had to step down due to ill health. Sadly Anthea passed away this week so we wanted to re-release her podcast episode in memory of our friend and colleague.

Anthea was a gem of a person, incredibly kind, modest and capable. She was a champion of SAS doctors and medical women. Her knowledge of byelaws and statutes was astounding. We shall miss her very much and send love to Anthea's family.

It's the season 3 finale!

This week, we have a live podcast from our MWF Spring Conference featuring a fantastic panel discussing the future of the NHS work force; supporting flexible working and SAS careers.

The panellists are Dr Rob Fleming (Specialty Doctor in Anaesthetics and a wonderful advocate for SAS doctors), Prof Partha Kar (NHSE lead for diabetes), Prof Kamila Hawthorne (Chair of the RCGP), Prof Angharad Davies (Consultant microbiologist and clinical academic) and Dr Vaishali Parulekar (Chair of the BMA SAS Committee).

This was a great session at our conference and we are delighted to share it with you!

We'll be taking a break for a few weeks and then we will be back for Season 4! In the meantime, you can catch up on all of our episodes.

This week we have another live podcast episode from our recent Spring conference. Professor Partha Kar is a Consultant in Diabetes, Diabetes Lead for NHS England and heavily involved in the MWRES - the medical workforce race equality standard. In this talk, Partha spoke to us about the data, and how it's important to gather data but then do something with the data to make change.

Our patients are a diverse population and so are our work force - it is up to all of us to make things more inclusive and diverse for our colleagues and patients.

Hello lovely listeners!

This week's episode is the second of our series of live episodes from our recent MWF Spring Conference.

Nuthana interviewed Harriet and Nikki, who have both been previous guests on the podcasts, on the subjects of self worth and money mindset and the link between the two.

Hello everyone!

Over the next few weeks, we're going to be sharing live podcasts from our recent MWF Spring Conference.

This week's guest is the fabulous Susie Edwards, who has of course been a guest on the podcast previously. Susie is a careers coach and founder of WonderIf. In this session, Susie spoke to us about finding fulfilment in our careers and gave us some helpful exercises we can all do to coach ourselves.

Hope you enjoy the episode!

Hello lovely listeners! We've reached 7,000 listens in over 66 countries - thank you so much for listening and sharing the podcast!! We're so glad you find it helpful :) Please keep rating and reviewing.

A different type of episode this week - Nuthana goes from being the host to being interviewee!

This is a recast of Dr Rachel Morris' You Are Not A Frog podcast episode where Prrofessor Chloe Orkin and Dr Nuthana Bhayankaram were guests speaking about the Medical Women's Federation, sexism in medicine, the glass slipper and the glass ceiling?

Rachel very kindly let us share this as a recast on The Medical Women Podcast.

Hello lovely listeners! Hope you have all had some lovely early April sunshine.

Patients are the heart of everything we do as healthcare professionals. Patient safety is all of our priorities. But it wasn't until July 2022 that we had someone in the role of Patient Safety Commissioner, ensuring patients are at the heart of everything we do and that their voice is heard.

Dr Henrietta Hughes is a GP and the first Patient Safety Commissioner for England. In this episode, she discusses what the role involves, her experience of applying for leadership roles and her advice for all of us on our career journeys.

Henrietta's book recommendation:

Man's search for meaning by Victor Frankl

Hands up if you’re feeling exhausted? Or burnt out? Or really wishing there was another way to do things?

Don't worry, you are not alone!

This week, my guest is Dr Joanna Martin – former doctor, actor and now an amazing leadership and business coach. Jo is the CEO and founder of One of Many, an organisation that supports women to live the change and lead the change. Jo gives us an introduction into Soft power, a more sustainable and more fun alternative to the superwoman we might be more familiar with. Jo shares her insights into how we can have impact without burnout.

To find out about One of Many and their upcoming One Woman Conference - https://oneofmany.co.uk/

Happy first day of Spring! The feeling of possibilities and new things is in the air.

This week, our guest is Dr MaryAnn Ferreux, Chair of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Group for the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Dr Ferreux is the Chief Medical Officer at Integrated Care 24, a social enterprise delivering urgent care services for the NHS. She has international experience working across both the Australian and UK health systems, with specialist qualifications in medical leadership and management.

In this episode, MaryAnn shares her career journey, lessons about balance and we also explore the sensitive and important topic of fertility and family planning.

Hello! This week, in celebration of Mother’s Day on Sunday 19th March, our guests are Dr Sola and Anna Riggs who host and produce the Mothers in Medicine Podcast. Sola and Anna share with us the common themes that have come up on their podcast, lessons learnt by mothers in medicine, and their top tips.

Regardless of your motherhood status, we hope you find this helpful. And for all those who are balancing being a medic and being a mum – we take our hats off to you!

Hello! It's International Women's Day this week (8th March) and we wanted to make a very special episode to commemorate it. We had great intentions to curate a special episode of the creme de la creme of highlights from previous episodes. However, with busy work shifts, job applications and medical school placements and essays, we have not had time.

So we'll make that for you another time.

We spent a HUGE amount of time putting together this bumper special for IWD 2022 and so we thought you would like to hear it again - after all, we are not the same people we were last IWD and there are so many pearls of wisdom packed into here, a re-listen will be well worth it. 

Enjoy!! 

** MWF Raffle ** 

In celebration of IWD, we are holding a raffle at our conference to raise funds for the Tearfund Turkey-Syria Earthquake appeal. Tickets need to be bought before the 17th March and cost £5. Prizes include careers coaching, money mindset bundles, a confidence bundle, signed books and vouchers! 

Link here: https://www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk/raffle 

MWF Spring Conference 

Our conference will be held virtually on the 17th March - all sessions recorded so you can watch back later if you can't make it on the day. Speakers include previous podcast guests speaking about career fulfilment, money mindset, confidence and self-worth, a panel speaking about SAS doctors and many more!

Tickets: https://www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk/news/mwf-virtual-spring-conference

Hello! Sorry the podcast is a bit late this week, Nuthana was working nights and had changeover to a new hospital and didn't quite manage to get the episode sorted to come out on time. She's embracing being a recovering perfectionist and accepting that it's better late than never! She also knows that you will understand and forgive her - she's trying to model that it's ok to be imperfect and that looking after herself is also important. 

This week we're thinking about careers and the questions we should ask ourselves, with career coach Laura Cloke. Laura guides us through the things we should consider when we think about our careers, how to find what we enjoy and the importance of thinking of ourselves as a whole person. 

We hope you enjoy the episode! 

**MWF International's Women's Day Raffle ** 

It's IWD on 8th March and the MWF conference on the 17th March. We'll be drawing a raffle at the conference, and 80% of proceeds will be donated to the Tearfund Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal. Prizes include a career coaching session, money planner, confidence programme, vouchers and books! 

To buy tickets: https://www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk/raffle 

MWF Spring conference:

Our Spring conference will be held online on the 17th March and recorded for those who cannot attend on the day. We're making this as accessible as possible for everyone! 

https://www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk/news-events/conference 

Follow the Medical Women’s Federation on social media:

On the podcast, we like to have conversations that we need to have but might not have elsewhere. 

This week, our guest is Ms Evelyn Mensah (Evie), a Consultant Ophthalmic surgeon and part of the medical workforce race equality standard (MWRES). Evie is committed to tackling inequalities, particularly pertaining to race. In this episode, we discuss how we can all call it out and call it in. We also discuss how each of us as individuals can influence structural change, and Evie gives the example of her junior colleague who did this for a patient information leaflet. 

Do you consider yourself a possibilitist? What is a possibilist, you might be wondering? Well this week’s guest is leadership and executive coach, and self-diagnosed possibilist Gitanjali Trevorrow-Seymour.

Gitanjali shares her take on the con of confidence, how we can all be more possibilist, and her view on imposter syndrome.

Hello! Hope you are all well on this cold, crisp February morning.

We’ve covered money mindset and wealth previously on the podcast, but with the cost of living crisis, we thought it would be helpful to touch on finances again.

This week’s episode is with bestselling author and wealth coach Barbara Huson. Barbara joins us to share what she has learnt from her own life and through the research for her books and from coaching her clients.

From studying neuroscience, Barbara realised that people could ‘rewire’ for a wealth mindset. As medics, we can apply this to discussions on habits with our patients too.

Barbara’s book recommendation:

A course in miracles

Next week is our RSM MWF event on inequalities: past, present and future

Hello! Happy 106th Birthday to the Medical Women's Federation. To celebrate, we are launching Season 3 of the podcast. 

This season is all about exploring possibilities.

This week's guest is Professor Kate Thomas, Dean of Medicine at the University of Birmingham. Kate is only the second woman and the first GP to be Dean of Medicine at Birmingham. In this episode, she shares her career journey and advice on how we can all support medical students and junior colleagues. 

Kate's book recommendations: 

The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey

Upcoming RSM and MWF event: 

https://www.rsm.ac.uk/events/rsm-studios/2022-23/cer02/ 

Follow the Medical Women’s Federation on social media:

The Season 2 Finale is upon us already – doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun! This week we are joined by one of the podcast’s biggest fans, Dr Charlotte Leach, a Palliative Care Consultant. Charlotte gives her advice for those transitioning from being a registrar to being a consultant, shares her thoughts on the importance of having interests outside medicine, and we had an in-depth discussion about biscuits.

We hope you enjoy listening!

We will be back with Season 3 in 2023 – please do let us know what topics you’d like to hear about and any guests you think we should hear from.

A very happy festive season and new year from all at the Medical Women’s Federation – thank you so much for all the support you have shown the podcast over the last 11 months!!

As it’s Christmas – if you are able to support the MWF via any donations they would be very welcome. Thank you!!

This season has been all about leadership, and a large part of being a leader is looking the part. Sadly women are judged far more on their appearance than what they say or do. Looking like a leader is a really important aspect of leadership.

This week our guest is stylist and author Lizzie Edwards, whose book ‘Look like the leader you are: a 7 step style strategy for ambitious women’ has just been released as a second edition! Lizzie shares her insights on common reasons why women go to her for help, why it’s important that we think about our style, and the 7 steps through which we can develop our own personal style.

Hello! This week, we are joined by the fabulous Dr Liz O’Riordan. Liz is a breast surgeon who then developed breast cancer herself. She has written several books and she speaks incredibly eloquently about her experience. In this episode, she shares what it was like to go from being doctor to patient, her experiences during surgical training and lessons she has learnt from her career and patient journey.

To connect with Liz:

International medical graduates make up a huge proportion of the NHS workforce, and as we heard a few weeks ago, are more likely to be SAS doctors. But they face a huge amount of discrimination and racism. In this episode, we speak to the fabulous Professor Partha Kar, National Specialty Adviser for Diabetes at NHS England, BMJ columnist and doing a huge amount of work to tackle racism in the medical workforce. 

In this episode, we discuss how we need to change systems, allyship, inequalities and superheroes. 

We hope you enjoy listening! 

Do you have a wardrobe full of clothes and yet nothing to wear? Do you find that you spend a lot of time and energy working out what to wear when you’d rather be spending that headspace on other decisions?

Deep breath. You’re not the only one!

This week, our guest is style expert Helen Reynolds. Helen shares her top tips for how we can work out what our style is in the first place, how to organise our wardrobes and how looking and feeling our best affects our behaviour.

Helen’s book recommendation:

You Are Not a Before Picture: How to Finally Make Peace with Your Body, for Good by Alex Light

Helen’s 5 easy style tips:

Does General Medical Council equate to Fitness to Practice in your head and cause palpitations? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. At medical school, we get taught little else about the work of the GMC.

But what do the GMC actually do, and what does being the Chair of the GMC involve?

In this episode, our guest is Professor Dame Carrie MacEwan, Chair of the GMC. We discuss the wider work of the GMC and how it supports patients and doctors. We also discuss how the GMC and individuals can work to drive change in inequalities associated with GMC referrals. Carrie also shares her insights from her own leadership journey.

Hello! Are you familiar with the term SAS doctor? SAS doctors make up 30% of the medical workforce, and yet, many of us have no idea what the term means. Thankfully, our guest this week is here to educate us. Dr Anthea Mowat is a retired Associate Specialist in Anaesthesia, and also our wonderful MWF Honorary Secretary.

She explains what exactly constitutes SAS doctors, and how we can all go about supporting our colleagues who are SAS doctors.

We’re all about equality at the Medical Women’s Federation and want to support all doctors throughout their careers, so we hope you find this episode really helpful.

Hello! Over the last two weeks we’ve spoken to two Royal College Presidents, and they both mentioned how all the Royal College Presidents work together as part of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.

This week’s guest is the Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Professor Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard. Helen is an academic GP and has been previous Chair of the Royal College of GPs. In this episode, we learn what her role as Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges involves, how senior leaders can still find mentors and seek help, and lessons she’s learnt along the way.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Last week we learnt about being the President of a newer Royal College and this week we learn about being President of the Royal College of Physicians.

Our guest this week is Professor Sir Bod Goddard, Immediate Past President of the RCP and Gastorenterology Consultant. He shares his experience of being President of the RCP, the history of the RCP and words of wisdom for our leadership journeys.

A very insightful and helpful episode, enjoy!

This Season is all about asking questions (it is a podcast after all), particularly what and how questions.

First up – have you ever wondered what the President of a Royal College actually does? So have we, and that’s what we’re exploring today.

This week’s guest is Dr Camilla Kingdon, the current President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Camilla is a Consultant Neonatologist and has been involved with the RCPCH for several years. In this episode, she shares her insights into what being President of the RCPCH involves and lessons she has learnt throughout her career.

We're back with season 2 and here's a sneak peak of all the exciting episodes we have coming up! 

Also, some public service announcements. 

Our Autumn conference is taking place on Friday 18th November in Nottingham, register here: https://www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk/news-events/conference 

To donate to the Medical Women's Federation, click here: https://www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk/donate 

You can also choose the Medical Women's Federation as a charity on Amazon Smile. 

Follow the Medical Women’s Federation on social media:

We're back with another special episode!

It's September and that means we're welcoming new medical students to University and the wards! In this special episode, we hear from four medical women who have been involved with the Medical Women's Federation since they were medical students. They share their advice for those starting medical school and those commencing their clinical years.

Tomorrow, the first Wednesday in August, will be the first day of being a doctor for all foundation year one doctors in the UK. It will also be the first day that many doctors start specialty training or become a more senior specialty trainee.

Understandably, lots of doctors in this situation will be feeling a mixture of excitement and pure terror!

We thought it would be helpful to hear from our junior doctors of MWF to get their advice on the transition from student to doctor and at different stages of medical training. We also asked our social media followers who helpfully shared lots of their top tips with us!

Our junior doctor members also share what they have gained from being a member of MWF and why they would encourage others to join.

GOOD LUCK to all of you starting new jobs, especially our new FY1 colleagues. You've got this!!

Mention of previous episodes:

Episode 7: Managing our money with Dr Nikki Ramskill

Episode 8: Being a mother to ourselves with Zoe Blaskey

Episode 15: Permission to thrive with Dr Rachel Morris and Dr Caroline Walker

It’s the season 1 finale so we needed a very special guest, and who better than MWF President Elect Professor Scarlett McNally! Scarlett is an orthopaedic surgeon, exercise advocate, mother of four and all round inspiring medical woman.

Scarlett joins us to speak about her career, and she shares what she has learnt over the last few years of being both a doctor and a patient, and exciting things she is working on for the future.

We’ll be back in September for Season 2. In the meantime, look out for two very special compilation episodes featuring junior doctors and medical students. Why not take some time over the summer to catch up on our previous episodes you might have missed or relisten to your favourites.

We hope you get some time to rest, replenish and enjoy the sunshine!

To find out more about Scarlett:

Have you ever wished you could do something about the negative voices in your head? Perhaps you have the courage to apply for something, and then your inner critic tells you that you are not good enough. Or you want to get on with some important work but your perfectionist stops you from submitting it until it’s perfect. If this sounds familiar, you are in good company. We all have a whole host of voices in our heads that try to protect us but can often get in our way. Most of the time we keep these voices to ourselves, but what I want us to be able to do on this podcast is to discuss the things that we usually don’t discuss. We spend our whole lives with one person – ourselves, and the way we speak to ourselves really matters. Most of the time, we speak to ourselves in a way we wouldn’t imagine speaking to our family, friends and colleagues.

Our guest today is speaker and coach Harriet Waley-Cohen, who specialises in helping women improve their self-worth, tame their perfectionist and turn their inner critic into an inner cheerleader. She joins us to share her tips on how we can turn these negative voices into our supporters. I hope you find this episode really helpful.

This warm weather has made me think of the Mary Oliver poem the Summer Day, which ends with the question, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

So often when we are going through medical school or the training treadmill, or whatever stage of our career we are in, it’s so easy to stay focused on how busy things are and everything that we need to do, that we can forget to step back and think about what we want to do with our one wild and precious life. and meanwhile, the time in that one wild and precious life is ticking away. This week our guest is Dr Lucy Henshall, GP, member of the RCGP Council and a founder of welcome back to work, an organisation supporting doctors returning to work. Lucy spoke at the MWF autumn conference 2021 and she spoke to us about doing ‘what works for you’. Most of the time we don’t stop to think about making small changes to make our work better for us. It was a very popular talk, so I invited Lucy to come and share her wisdom with you, our lovely podcast listeners. I hope you enjoy the episode, and I encourage you to spend some time thinking about what you would like to do with your one wild and precious life.

Lucy’s book recommendations:

Ikigai: Discover Your Reason For Being by Justyn Barnes

Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts by Brené Brown

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing by Bessel van der Kolk

The Wild Remedy: How Nature Mends Us - A Diary by Emma Mitchell

The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks

The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul by William Sieghart

Follow Lucy on social media: