We are extremely proud to announce that CICM has published its ‘Statement on Gender Balance within the College of Intensive Care Medicine’, written in collaboration with WIN.
This is the culmination of several years of advocacy from the WIN team and a firm commitment from the CICM board to promoting diversity within the College. Dr Sarah Yong and A/Prof Di Stephens warrant particular recognition for their advocacy from their dual roles on both the CICM board and WIN-ANZICS committee.
The statement can be found here.
The Statement considers several domains affecting gender balance in our specialty:
· Gender balance across leadership and representational roles in the College of Intensive Care Medicine, including targets for female representation.
· Ensuring that both the trainee selection process and employment interviews in CICM-accredited ICUs are transparent, fair and minimise the impact of unconscious bias.
· Working towards a flexible workplace environment and training program, including consideration of doctors taking parental leave and breastfeeding doctors.
· Promoting a culture of respect and inclusivity within intensive care medicine.
The document contains some pretty practical advice. For example, when holding job interviews for ICU medical roles: be transparent and fair, aim for a selection panel of 50% women…but have at least one senior female panellist…and do NOT ask questions that could discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics like caring roles or sexual orientation.
This is extremely exciting!
Of course, there is always more work to be done as we work steadily towards a more diverse ICU workforce. Here at WIN-ANZICS HQ we shan’t spend too long resting on our laurels. Nonetheless, such an important milestone must be celebrated!!
Let us know on twitter @womenintensive or on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/womenintensive/ what you think and what you want to see out college commit to in future iterations.
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