Michigan Surgery Sessions Podcast

Discussing the latest in clinical care, education and surgery culture with faculty, residents and medical students.

Get to Know the Surgery Team

The Michigan Medicine Department of Surgery podcast features our faculty members and trainees as they discuss the newest ideas and initiatives that are driving our mission forward. We seek to continually promote excellence in clinical care, research, education, and culture at the University of Michigan, and we hope to amplify the powerful voices of our talented team.

Season 1 of the Michigan Surgery Sessions podcast focuses on faculty and resident life, with topics ranging from wellness to mentorship. Season 2 discusses mentorship as well, in addition to episodes featuring the Michigan Women's Surgical Collaborative.

Episode Descriptions

Season 1 Episode 1: Mentorship

Trainees need teaching to learn surgical skills, but they also need coaching to help them navigate their path and inform career decisions. That's where mentorship comes in. 

On this episode, we explore what mentorship looks like for medical students and surgery residents, what makes a good mentor and mentee, how to find a good fit, and what both the mentor and mentee can take away from the relationship.

Featured speakers include:

Season 1 Episode 2: Wellness

If we aren't well, we can't effectively help others. Promoting wellness among surgical trainees takes intention, structure, and caring.  

In this episode, we discuss what wellness means, why it's important and what initiatives we've undertaken to encourage and support it. 

Featured speakers include:

Season 1 Episode 3: Identity in Surgery

It’s not frequently discussed, but identity is core to being a surgeon. How do surgeons reconcile their personal identity with their professional identity? How do those two identities develop?

On this episode, we explore what identity is, how it drives people to surgery, how it evolves within the professional journey.

Featured speakers include: 

Season 1 Episode 4: Social Responsibility

Surgeons' worlds don't end at the operating room, so what is their responsibility to society outside of it?

In this episode, we discuss what social responsibility looks like for surgeons, what we're doing to tackle the tough issues that affect our society and the health of our patients, and what more needs to be done.

Featured speakers include:

Season 1 Episode 5: Intraoperative Learning  

In surgery, the classroom extends to the operating room, where doing and observing are learning. What is intraoperative teaching, and how does it help trainees?

On this episode, we discuss the techniques used by faculty and residents to teach in the operating room, and hear from both sides of the teacher/trainee dynamic about what makes certain methods effective. 

Featured speakers include: 

Season 2 Episode 1: Mentoring Across Differences

Mentor-mentee relationships can often form around similarities in interests and backgrounds. Some of the richest relationships, though, develop across differences. 

How can mentors and mentees work effectively together when they come from different background and have different experiences, and how can those differences be leveraged to benefit everyone? 

On this episode, we talk about that dynamic, and strategies for finding mentors and mentees who will bring those valuable differences to the table.

Featured speakers include:

Season 2 Episode 2: MWSC - Foundation and Future

The Michigan Women’s Surgical Collaborative (MWSC) has built its mission around highlighting the barriers to achievement for female surgeons and inspiring real change to remove those barriers.On this episode, we talk with two members of the leadership team of the MWSC to understand how the group set the stage for such work, and discuss the work still to be done. 

Featured speakers include: 

Season 2 Episode 3: MWSC - Implementing Strategies in a Change-Averse Environment

When everyone isn't on board: Moving forward in tricky waters

Implementing strategies is always challenging. Doing it in a change-averse or hostile environment makes it even more so.

We continue the Michigan Women’s Surgical Collaborative (MWSC) mini-series with a discussion about how to move forward when the going isn’t so easy—and strategies for successful implementation in difficult environments.

Featured speakers include:

Season 2 Episode 4: MWSC - Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Healthcare

Strategies for Working Towards Inclusive Workplaces and Patient-Centered Healthcare Systems

If we want our health care systems to be patient-centered, we need a workforce that reflects the patient population. If we want an inclusive, equitable and diverse workplace, we need to be intentional about how we get there.

We pick up the Michigan Women’s Surgical Collaborative (MWSC) mini-series with a discussion about strategies to apply to incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion in the health care setting.

Featured speakers include:

Season 2 Episode 5: MWSC - Beyond Fixing Women 

It’s not about fixing women, it’s about strategies

Women in surgery don’t need fixing. Their surgical outcomes are as good or better than their male counterparts’, for starters. What they need are individual strategies to overcome the achievement gap and put impostor syndrome to rest. 

We continue the Michigan Women’s Surgical Collaborative (MWSC) mini-series with a discussion about how to create networks, build coalitions and leverage tools to thrive. 

Featured speakers include:

Season 2 Episode 6: MWSC - Beyond HeForShe 

The HeForShe movement focused on the role of men onaccelerating gender equality. Is it time to close up shop on this movement, or is there still work to do? If the work isn’t done, what does getting it done look like?

We continue the Michigan Women’s Surgical Collaborative (MWSC) mini-series with a discussion about the role of men in helping female surgeons achieve. 

Featured speakers include: 

Season 2 Episode 7: MWSC - Intersectionality

The factors that drive discrimination and disadvantage are more complex than we realize—and they are often overlapping and interdependent.

That’s where intersectionality comes in. What is it, and how does it relate to underrepresented and marginalized groups advancing in surgery specifically and medicine generally?

We cap off the Michigan Women’s Surgical Collaborative (MWSC) mini-series with a robust and frank discussion about the role of intersectionality in making medicine a more diverse, equitable and inclusive place.

Featured speakers include: