Join us for this month’s episode where Rhiannon Richards sits down with Felicity Meyer, Helen Skinner and Jade Whing to explore the challenges and experiences faced by pregnant surgical trainees and how supervisors can play a major role in supporting trainees who are navigating their surgical training whilst pregnant.  

Host: Rhiannon Richards

Rhiannon Richards is a Yorkshire General Surgical trainee, a former Leadership Fellow for Supported Return to Training and mother to two children. Her leadership work has focused on pregnancy in surgery, improving the process of returning to surgical training after time out and national research into complex phased returns.

Guest: Felicity Meyer

Felicity Meyer is the current Chair of the RCS England Women in Surgery Forum, having previously been their Flexible Working Advisor. She is a Consultant Vascular Surgeon working across Norfolk and Deputy Medical Director at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn. She has three adult children and is passionate about teaching and training: everyone must have equal access to a fantastic surgical career.

Guest: Helen Skinner

Helen Skinner is an ST4 General Surgery trainee working in the Yorkshire & Humber deanery. She was elected to the ASiT Council as Yorkshire and Humber regional Representative in 2021 and joined the Executive Committee in March 2023 as Webmaster & Bursary Liaison. She has an interesting training and education, sustainability and increasing diversity in the surgical workforce.

Guest: Jade Whing

Jade Whing is a perpetual ST6 Vascular Surgery Registrar working in the East of England. She has a keen interest in necrotic legs, trauma, and global surgery, having previously worked in South Africa. Currently on maternity leave, she solo-parents a dinosaur-obsessed two-year-old and a10-week-old baby — all while her partner has spent the past year living away, completing a trauma surgery fellowship and sitting exams. She is exhausted. 

Resources

The impact of parental and caring responsibilities on surgical careers

Parents in Surgery Report

Delivering Ambitious Change for Parents in Surgery

JCST– Return to work guidance

Produced by: Andrea Pearson

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