Inspirational Black Men and Women in Medicine: Dr. Sonya M. Sloan, #OrthoDoc, On 5 Things You Need To Create A Successful Career In Medicine: AN INTERVIEW WITH JAMIE HEMMINGS
Respect: Rule #4 in my book, The Rules of Medicine, is knowing the janitor’s name. My mother taught me that respect for others would teach people how to handle you and make others listen to you more attentively. While working in the VA hospital, I knew the name of every janitor in the OR and surgical floor. That was not the norm for residents. Thus, they would help me get surgical suites cleaned faster to do more cases. When other residents realized my secret, everyone became more respectful to the janitors.
Inthe United States today, black doctors are vastly underrepresented. Only 5% of physicians nationwide are black. Why is it so important to have better representation? What steps can be taken to fix this discrepancy? In this interview series, we are talking to successful black men and women in medicine about their career, their accomplishments, and how others may follow their path. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Sonya Sloan, M.D.
Sonya M. Sloan, M.D., better known as #OrthoDoc, has established herself as a force to be reckoned with in the male-dominated field of Orthopedic Surgery and is licensed to practice medicine in several states as she travels to extend the impact of her unique approach to patient care. Dr. Sloan is the quintessential fusion of her love for medicine and her passion for helping others as she works in healthcare, and as an entrepreneur in the community and internationally, as demonstrated through her medical clinic in Haiti, her nonprofit SLOAN STEM+Arts Inc. (youth minority STEM camp), co-founder of #NBWPD National Black Women Physicians Day, and author of The Rules of Medicine: a Medical Professionals Guide to Success (Amazon Best Seller in Medical Education and Training).
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood?
Igrew up in small town USA, less than 25K people and never saw a female doctor or a black doctor, but was inspired by my mom (a registered nurse).
Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I was an athlete in high school (cheerleader, gymnast, and track runner). I injured my knee while running the 100m hurdles and started a long journey with an Orthopedic Surgeon who encouraged me to think about the field if I wanted to become a surgeon.
Can you please give us your favorite? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“If you want to hear God laugh, make a plan.” I have never had the typical course for my life or career path, but I do believe God has ordained every step with a purpose.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
During my residency trauma training in Houston TX, a severely injured patient (young mother) had been brought in near the brink of death due to all her injures after being caught beneath an accordion bus. Every surgical team was present to emergently work on her in hope to save her life, but at one point someone in the operating room yelled… STOP! What are we doing? Life over limb, we had to recognize she would not have a quality life even if she survived. That day, I learned what it means to work as a team and respect life and death. Regardless of our training and skills, we were humbled by the notion; we could not save everyone.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Respect, Delegation, Follow.
Respect: Rule #4 in my book, The Rules of Medicine, is knowing the janitor’s name. My mother taught me that respect for others would teach people how to handle you and make others listen to you more attentively. While working in the VA hospital, I knew the name of every janitor in the OR and surgical floor. That was not the norm for residents. Thus, they would help me get surgical suites cleaned faster to do more cases. When other residents realized my secret, everyone became more respectful to the janitors.
Delegation: As a speaker and blogger, I have discussed you can have it all. I tell people it happens with not trying to do it all and allowing others to help and delegate tasks you may not be as gifted in, or have time for. Case in point, with my first child, I could not be a super mom, wife, surgeon and housekeeper: I needed a tribe of people to help. I could ask friends and family and hire others to do things. Delegation is not a sign of weakness but leadership since you still have to oversee things that are done efficiently and timely.
Follow: I believe in leading; you must also know how to follow. You will have people you work with who will have great ideas and gifts to enhance your goals.
As a leader, when others see that you are humble enough to follow, they will work harder for the vision or task at hand.
As the First Lady (wife of the pastor) of a megachurch in Houston, many people would never expect me to do small tasks relegated to hired staff or volunteers. But on any given day, I will pick up trash on the floor and assist people with medical issues. When others see this, they feel pride in our church and follow suit.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. This might seem intuitive to you, but it would be helpful to articulate this expressly. Can you share three reasons with our readers why it’s really important for there to be more diversity in medicine?
Influence
Improved Patient Care and outcomes
Financial benefits
Black Women make up less than 2% of all physicians in America. And Black Women Orthopaedic Surgeons are less than 0.7% of all orthopedic surgeons in the country. The idea to be one is that you have to see one is critical for the medical field. Having influential mentors and advocates to help students along the path in medicine is also pivotal to increasing the numbers.
Numerous studies show benefits for patient care, limiting bias and diminishing morbidity and mortality for minorities. This is due to understanding the cultural and communal barriers to respect for minorities and respectfully engaging a person during their medical care.
Corporate America is the model proving diversity only aids in growing healthcare companies’ bottom dollar. We have never had a level playing field in educational institutions, specifically medical schools and residency programs. It takes 12–15 years to make a practicing physician or surgeon (four years of college, four years of medical school, 4–6 of residency +/ a fellowship). In that time, many minorities and women chose not to go into academic medicine, thus lending to limited access due to unconscious bias.
As things stand today, what are the main barriers for black men and women to enter the medical field?
Access (limited exposure and training), mentorship/advocates (limited programs and people who look like them), financial obligations (funding of college and medical school is extremely expensive in most states still).
From your perspective, can you share a few things that can be done by the community, society, or the government, to help remove those barriers?
Programs, nonprofits, and other organizations incentivized to assist in increasing early exposure, mentorship and funding (like my non-profit SLOAN STEM+ARTS INC.)
What are your “five things I wish someone had told me when I first started my medical career,” and why?
1 . RULE #1 TRUST NO ONE
2 . RULE # 23 CYA: DOCUMENT
3 . RULE #29 GET A LIFE: SUPPORT
4 . RULE #31 EMBRACE FAILURE: LEARN
5 . RULE #25 PLAY THE GAME: POLITICS
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I think I have done that with Rule #34 in my book, The Rules of Medicine, Pay it Forward. Remind others to give back their time, energy, and talents to those who want to be like them. Speak up, stand up for what is right, and use your voice to make a difference in medicine.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
CEO Safra Catz, Oracle
I believe she is the leading voice and inspiration for medical technologies, which is the next frontier for medical professionals to be part of.
How can our readers best continue to follow your work online?
Social media: @iamsonyasloanmd
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.