People, Perspective, Me

My summer experience is based in an orthopedic hospital where I am interning and working with orthopedic doctors. The direct stakeholders in this type of environment are the physicians and hospitals surrounding the local area. This is because these are actively involved in the decision making and success of orthopedic care and work. The goal is to give patients excellent care and get them to feeling a hundred percent! The indirect stakeholders would be the patients and surrounding community. This is because although the patients are receiving care and are a part of the environment, they do not actively have a way in how the hospital is running things. The issue I am specifically researching is why women are underrepresented in the orthopedic field. It is a very male dominated career, and because of my goals of wanting to become an orthopedic doctor I would like to figure out why this is. My plan is to observe interactions, demographics, and behaviors between patients and their male or female physician while I am getting the experience in the career, I want to be a part of in the future. I am connected to this issue for two reasons. One is because my dream is to be an orthopedic doctor, and I want to help women become more represented in the field due to my work. The second reason is because I was a USAG competitive gymnast for eight years of my life, and had to unfortunately stop my career due to an overwhelming number of injuries. Because of these injuries, I ended up forming a very strong relationships with my orthopedic doctor in Orlando, and he is my inspiration. Also, growing up as a gymnast, I took the harassment Simone Biles, and the rest of the Olympic gymnastics team went through to heart. They were assaulted by their orthopedic doctor on scene of the competitions, and it was a very traumatic experience for most. This also drives me to want to become an orthopedic even more, to represent and help my community in a safe and successful way so patients feel comfortable. Perspectives that are currently relevant to my issue include the women orthopedic perspective stating how they feel underrepresented and looked down upon in the orthopedic field. There was an article on how females in orthopedics faced micro aggressions during training from their male coworkers making them feel negatively about their chosen career path. The perspective I want to find details on is the patient perspective. Since the career is so male dominated would patients feel more comfortable if they had a female orthopedic doctor taking care of them? Or do they feel indifferent about it? I want to find the answers to these questions out! I see myself fitting into the picture as I already have previous experience as a medical assistant and volunteering at the Tallahassee Orthopedic center, so I think this is a perfect opportunity for me to gain more experience for my future and research the topic I am most passionate about in doing so! – Taylor Haul