Neurosurgery as a specialty was founded in 1920, when our
George Washington, Dr. Harvey Cushing, founded the Society of Neurological
Surgeons and began to share techniques with an elite group of burgeoning brain
surgeons around the United States. Central to the new specialty was training,
and our passage of knowledge from generation to generation has shaped us ever
since.
Until very recently, the faces in neurosurgery residency
training programs were mostly pretty similar, and virtually all male. When I
trained, about 5% of incoming residents were women. Just 4 or 5 years ago, that
percentage had only reached about 10%. In just the last few years, though, more
women are entering neurosurgery and beginning to change the specialty. In the
last two years, about 1 in 5 new trainees has been a woman.
I am proud that OHSU Neurosurgery is in the vanguard of this
new trend. Currently, 5 of our 15 residents are women, an unusually high 33%.
Our 2011 class of new residents included Dr. Frances Hardaway and Dr.
Kelley Bridges, both of whom were among the top U.S. medical school graduates
in 2011.
Our experience has been that a reputation for a supportive
and positive environment for women trainees (and in fact all trainees) has
given us access to some of the best applicants available. Soon, having a
neurosurgical workforce that reflects the diversity of the neurosurgical
patient population will start having a positive, and profound, impact.
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