March is Women’s History Month and what a great reason to feature some of the amazing women on our team! Women are essential to our organization and are especially important in academic medicine, where women have historically been underrepresented. In the United States, female EM physicians make up only about 28% of the academic workforce. At USF, approximately 40% of our faculty are female and many of them serve in additional leadership roles - making USF a great place to find a mentor! When it comes to emergency medicine, physicians aren’t the only ones with an important role in the department. Emergency medicine requires a team approach that is somewhat unique to our specialty. In this month’s blog, I’ll feature some of our remarkable USF/TGH team members. I can’t wait to do more posts like this, because there is no shortage of additional women that deserve to be highlighted!

Dr. Derr has actually devoted her entire professional career to USF Emergency Medicine Residency! She was initially hired as the Ultrasound Director for our program and later served as the Assistant Program Director. In 2010 she established an ultrasound fellowship for trainees. In 2017, she became the first woman to be named the Program Director for our residency. This is a role she considered an honor but she also realized it came with a lot of pressure.

She had clear goals as she stepped into the role of PD:

1) Create a culture that values wellness and is receptive to resident feedback

2) Provide an exceptional educational experience

3) Foster an environment of respect, collaboration, and inclusion

She immediately lowered the total number of hours residents were working and created shifts with an hour of overlap to reflect national trends and promote a healthier work-life balance. She began collecting input from the residents and taking action! Incorporating resident suggestions resulted in numerous beneficial changes within the program including creating new elective opportunities and a longitudinal peds experience. She made additional improvements to education such as creating new asynchronous learning opportunities through the use of popular EM resources such as HIPPO EM which allowed conference time to be reduced from 5 hours to 4, adopting the Foundations curriculum to ensure residents received core content education in a method that was case-based and interactive, and she established a procedural cadaver lab in conjunction with our Simulation Director to provide residents with an unparalleled training experience.

Dr. Derr’s third goal was lofty, but incredibly important and something she remains passionate about. She envisioned a program where everyone had the ability to reach their potential through a culture built on respect, collaboration, and inclusion. In order to achieve this goal, she has focused on the importance of developing mentor programs, establishing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and incorporating cultural competencies and bias training into our curriculum.

It would be impossible to talk about her without also recognizing that she led an EM Residency during the Covid-19 pandemic, prioritizing resident safety and education - that’s certainly history worth mentioning!

I asked Dr. Derr, “What advice do you have for women considering EM?” Her response was simple but resonates, “Align yourself with strong mentors who can open doors for you and keep an eye out for opportunities for you. Develop a niche within EM. Don't take on too much at one time. It's OK to say "no". Allow yourself time to enjoy life's special moments.” Outside of medicine, Dr. Derr enjoys fitness (just ask her about the 12 week Challenge she created for our hospital), snowboarding, scuba diving, learning to paint, capturing sunsets, and spending time with her husband and family. To hear more about her, check out our “Meet our Program Director” video.

Dr. Kiely is a natural leader so during my interview with Dr. Kiely, I wanted to hear more about her views on female leadership in medicine. I asked, “Do you think it's important to have women in leadership positions in medicine?” She replied, “I firmly believe it is important to have women in leadership positions in medicine because women offer a different perspective or way of solving a problem compared to men. Perhaps it is the stronger cross-talk between hemispheres in female brains! Additionally, women serving in leadership roles in medicine are excellent role models for younger women who are interested in leadership and administrative positions. Having female Program Directors is one of the things that drew me to USF. We need more women in positions of power!” And now for the tough question, “Have you experienced gender bias as a female resident physician and if so, what advice can you share with other residents experiencing gender bias?” “While I do think gender bias still exists in medicine, things are changing. I truly do not think I have experienced any gender bias from colleagues – if anything, they are fantastic allies when patients exhibit gender bias. I recall one instance where a patient assumed his (male) nurse was the doctor and I was the nurse. I just politely told the patient “No, your nurse is a male and your doctor is a female.” I think as times continue to change and generations evolve, these sorts of assumptions will become less and less common. I would say the best advice to young female physicians I can give is stay polite and professional but do not allow patients to call you anything other than “Doctor” – and correct them if they do.”

In my interview with Vanessa, she shared with me why Women’s History Month is important to her:

“Women’s history is our history, especially now. The world is growing and evolving. For me, it’s a time to reflect on those who preceded us, and those that led the way. A time to reflect where we once were as a society and celebrate the women that laid the foundation and the women that encourage, support, nurture and mentor another generation of women to do the same. This is important to me because I’m a mother trying to raise strong women. I want my daughters to have the same opportunities in life that other mother’s sons have.”

I can’t help but wonder if Vanessa’s experience being a mother of young girls gives her a unique perspective as she cares for patients and interacts with physicians. I decided to ask her a difficult question - Have you experienced or witnessed gender bias in medicine? “While nursing is still predominantly a female field, I have been fortunate enough to not experience gender bias personally.  I have however, witnessed on multiple occasions, female physicians that were undermined or depreciated. I witnessed a colleague that is an attending physician, get belittled by an older gentleman saying, “You can go get your boss now.” Implying that she was not the one in charge because she was a woman. When the attending physician explained to the patient that she was going to be the one managing his care he replied, “Oh no, I need that male doctor back” (the resident). The resident then explained to the patient how she was “the boss” and the patient replied, “How did that happen?” I was astounded by these comments, I genuinely did not think people still believed or voiced this absurdity.” This is a great example of why Women’s History Month should be important to us all. As far as we’ve come, there’s still work to be done!

Did you catch these HISTORICAL Moments featuring women in our Department?

Aeromed: 30 years of saving lives in the sky

These women are helping to lead Tampa Bay – and TGH – into the future

Tiffany Vasey, NP of the YEAR (2021), has helped transform the way we care for Covid-19 patients.

More Great Women doing Great Things!

Have another woman or story you’d like to see highlighted? Share your shout-outs! Email enolaokonkwo@usf.edu!

About the Author

Dr. Okonkwo is the Associate Program Director at USF. She attended medical school at Indiana University and completed her emergency medicine residency training at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.