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Health Education · Lifestyle Medicine

Circular Steps

Written by Dr. Kate McCann
11th May 2023
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This isn’t a stock photo. I actually did take this photo this afternoon.

View from top of Helix staircase in Royal College of Surgeons Ireland this afternoon.

It’s really a visible sign of how medical education has changed, is changing.

Those stairs weren’t there years ago when I did my post-graduate training.  Neither were signs that stated the policy against misogyny, racism, intolerance, and hate speech.

So, the stairs aren’t the only things that have changed.

And change can be good.

The last time I was in RCSI was for a meeting for women in surgery.  My second son was only about 14 days old, and I left him for a couple of hours.  And why it can seem incredible that I left my poor infant with his doting grandmothers for a couple of hours, it really was that important.  At that time I was, still, a specialist surgeon.  Most of my real-life patients know that I now identify as a rehabilitated or reformed surgeon – certainly too young to identify as retired. And certainly my patients who are seeing me for pre-hab are very aware.

The journey of how I went from there to where I am now is more circular than I realised.

At some points over the last 3 years, I wasn’t sure if I was taking steps up or down when I re-certified and changed to practicing as a physician.

Today, I realised it’s more circular than just up or down when I returned to RCSI to lecture in what I had learned since I had last been there.

Simply amazing to be back there for the first time in years today.

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