Recruiting female gastroenterologists
Even though about half of gastroenterology fellows choose independent GI, most fellowship programs don’t educate students about private practice careers or promote that path. In addition, a lot of the national GI conferences are geared toward the academic experience.
It’s incumbent on those of us in private practice to educate students about the benefits and challenges we face as members of independent GI groups, and Gastro Health set out to hold networking and recruitment events at different national conferences with GI fellows and residents.
We’re also working to develop partnerships with fellowship programs. This past year, we’ve held several educational dinners for fellows and residents. Most recently, Dr. Khapra and others took a road trip to New York for dinners with fellows from Mount Sinai, Westchester Medical Center, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
While it was beneficial for Gastro Health to provide information about life as private practice gastroenterologists, it was also helpful for us to hear how the GI leaders of tomorrow are navigating their career choices and what is impacting their decisions about the future.
Mentorship and retention are vital to practice sustainability
Once you’ve recruited physicians to join your practice, how do you ensure their success? Many practices are rightly concerned about their long-term sustainability and are exploring ways to help early-career physicians maintain the clinical skills they need to treat patients and learn the business skills they need to succeed in private practice.
Sometimes it’s as simple as reaching out to new associates on the first day to let them know you’re glad they’ve joined the practice and to let them know you’re available if they need anything. But there’s also growing recognition that implementing a formal mentorship program can help people feel included and supported.
The Women’s Network worked to pair its members with Gastro Health partners as mentors, and we’ve learned some things along the way. Initially, we tried to pair people with similar lifestyles and interests. What we found is that while this sometimes works, we may have overcomplicated the process. We learned that sometimes people would prefer mentors who have backgrounds that are different from their own. We were reminded that mentorship has many faces, and letting those relationships develop naturally can sometimes be more effective.
Networking and social events deter isolation and keep people engaged
Private practice can be different from working within a hospital because oftentimes your colleagues are working in different offices or facilities. In the case of our organization, those offices may be in different states hundreds of miles away. Within a hospital, there might be more potential to interact with your colleagues, whether in clinical conferences or through a chance encounter in the cafeteria.
In private practice, you may need to be more intentional about creating opportunities for people to network and get to know each other outside of work. This year, we developed an email and WhatsApp group so that women throughout the network can connect with each other. We have used it to disseminate information about upcoming events, fellowship opportunities with the national GI societies, interesting articles, and anything important that we think other women within Gastro Health would like to know.
In March, Gastro Health sponsored five women to attend the Scrubs & Heels Summit, which was developed by Dr. Anita Afzali and Dr. Aline Charabaty to create opportunities for women in GI at different stages of their GI careers and help them succeed and achieve their professional goals. There were 2 days of educational talks, but it also included plenty of events for our colleagues to get to know each other and network with other amazing female GI leaders from across the nation.
