Health System women doctors work, raise families 'their way'

When Frank Sinatra said he did things "My Way," he didn't have in mind two female doctors trying to survive the rigors of a medical fellowship while raising children. At a roundtable discussion Tuesday entitled, "Our Way: Programmatic Leadership by Women Physicians at Penn," Lisa Bellini and Tracey Barret of the Health System discussed how they were able to successfully balance their family and medical lives. Bellini, vice chairperson of education at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and Barret, chief of staff at the Veterans Hospital, explained how they came up with an ingenious way to be both mother and medical fellow. With two of them filling one role, they rotated the duties of a shared fellowship for two years. While one worked at HUP for one month, the other would be on leave. "This was something that had never been done before," Barret told the group at HUP's Rhodes Conference Room. The 15 female doctors and medical fellows who turned out for the discussion had many questions for the pioneering women. When asked how they came up with their idea, Barret explained that they "did this primarily because we are mothers and being a mother is a priority in our lives." To supplement the earnings from their pulmonary medicine fellowship, Hematology Professor Janet Abrahm secured the two a second job in hospital administration during their nonfellowship months. "I really care about the professional development of the people I hired," Abrahm said when questioned why she went out of her way to ensure that Barret and Bellini survived the rigorous program. But Barrett said the rotating system still did not allow the two women enough time to spend with their children. To remedy the situation, Barret and Bellini arranged their schedules around their children's eating and sleeping patterns. "I read an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association that changed my life," Bellini said. "I adapted my time schedule to where we eat together and go to bed at the same time. I get up in the wee hours of the morning to finish my work." Bellini and Barret said they had success with the system they devised but would not recommend it for everyone. "We had more luck than most," Bellini said. "But what we did was not the answer to the problem." And addressing what lessons they learned from their arduous experience, Bellini told the group, "Actually, I believe being a mother is what I do best."