WIN Victoria held their second dinner earlier this month at the RACV club, with the theme, ‘From little things, big things grow.’ The popularity of our dinners has grown faster than poached eggs and kale with the registration list filled a month before the event. One big difference was the presence of the ‘Y factor’, provided by the attendance of a number of our male intensivist colleagues.
The night was sponsored by Hospira (a Pfizer company), with many thanks for their generous support. WIN is supported by ANZICS and ICN- a podcast of the evening will be available through ICN soon!
The first guest speaker was Dr Claire Cattigan, Intensivist and Deputy Director at Geelong ICU. She described the Geelong experience of integrating paediatric patients into their Intensive Care Unit, highlighting the importance of inter-hospital and inter-departmental support, staff education and the practical aspects of equipment and checklists.
Her frank and engaging account prompted a wide-ranging discussion; from the trainee experience in such an environment through to the feasibility of such a model in private healthcare.
Next Dr Irma Bilgrami, an intensivist at Western Health, spoke on building effective mentoring relationships. She identified mentoring across gender differences as a particular challenge, as perceptions about female capability, capacity and credibility give rise to bias. Her approach to ‘making mentorship work’, provided a great framework for tackling this complex area.
Irma’s engaging presentation provided fuel for an extended discussion, prompting questions about the practical aspects of mentoring to a collaborative sharing of mentoring experiences.
This second dinner had a different feeling to it- a sense of excitement at the momentum that WIN has been building. It was a sentiment that was almost physically palpable, as attendees realized the potential that this network has. It was for this reason, more than any other (delicious food, flowing drinks and socialization included) that the night was quite definitely a resounding success. Keep tuned for the next dinner, coming up in October and check out the new Mentoring section on our website (here) for more resources.