- Dr Remi-Adele Kaz, Highly Commended Entry of the Junior Doctor Prize
To answer this question, I have chosen to create a self-portrait. The 4 women that I am sitting with are an amalgamation of the hundreds of women doctors who have invested their time in me throughout my medical training so far to shape me into the doctor that I am today.
These include women with chronic health conditions, who are pregnant or breastfeeding,and BAME women. They represent women doctors of all sexualities and religions, SAS doctors, leaders and teachers.
To solve the NHS workforce crisis, I believe these women are who we need to invest in, recruit and retain, as the NHS workforce would crumble without them.
There is a photograph on the current homepage for MWF with striking body language. It shows a group of women who are supporting each other and feel comfortable around each other, and I instantly knew I wanted to incorporate this posture into my piece to represent the women doctors who have made me feel that way too.
A major way in which I believe women are the solution to the NHS workforce crisis is that more and more women are choosing a career as a SAS doctor.
The women SAS doctors who I have met have shown me how this career pathway provides them with the joy of staying in the town that they call home rather than relocating every few months, as well as for some, more time with their children.
They tell me that as a result, this role has made them feel valued and empowered, and as a result are staying in their careers as doctors.
From speaking to breastfeeding doctors, I believe that the strides that are being made in destigmatising breastfeeding and expressing breastmilk in the NHS workplace are vital in reducing women from having to choose between breastfeeding and their job.
Women doctors with chronic health conditions who have taught me that my health conditions can make me a doctor who can emphasise better with my patients and I have seen examples in my own practice that support the studies that suggest that women doctors emphasise better with patients, and can lead to better patient outcomes.
Finally, the little girl on the right represents to me so vividly the phrase "you can't be what you can't see". Inspiring women doctors make it more likely for girls like her to become the women doctors of the future.
