Charleston Women in Medicine

Mission

The mission of Charleston Women in Medicine (WIM) is to create a culture of equity, advancement and respect for women in medicine: to promote career development and mentoring, teaching and scholarship, collegial networking, and professional and personal well-being.

Vision 

• To support women and their unique needs to promotion in their faculty and academic pursuits, including research, teaching, mentorship and service
• To elevate women to meaningful leadership positions and decision-making roles in the institution organization
• To advocate for the institutional support that women need to succeed in academic and clinical medicine, including those related to work-family-life balance
• To support meaningful culture change: recognizing and eradicating all types of inequity due to race, sex, gender, age and cultural background

What We Do

Charleston WIM Subgroups:

WIM members coordinate a range of initiatives to carry out our mission (Contact us to join a Subgroup or for more information).

Professional Development and Mentoring Subgroup:

• Charleston Women in Medicine Group Meetings: A series of virtual lunchtime Topic Discussion and Networking sessions led by WIM Core Council members and guest speakers
  • Join us 12 to 1:00 p.m. by zoom on the first Friday of each month (Contact us to attend any session)
  • Charleston WIM Group Meetings: Topic Discussion and Networking series
• Mentoring in Medicine Pilot: A faculty mentoring program linking early and mid-career WIM to senior women and men faculty in a group mentoring format
  • Mentoring in Medicine
  • AAMC GWIMS

Networking Subgroup: 

• Semi-annual social gatherings at local venues, promoting collegial networking and well-being
• Networking Events 

Child and Family Care Resources Subgroup:

• An initiative to identify the impact of child and family care resource availability on Charleston WIM professional development, wellbeing and recruitment and retention; and to develop institutional recognition and support for childcare policies and resources
• A partnership with local university to develop viable childcare options, including an independent daycare and an online resource to contact available in-home caregivers
• A child development center proposal created by University of Charleston MBA students (Child Development Center)
• Minutes for Childcare Meeting

Research, Scholarship and Teaching Subgroup:

• Ongoing research and scholarly projects developed and led by Charleston WIM members, including WIM as PI and Co-Investigators: 
  • A Gender Equity study, based on a faculty culture survey distributed to all women faculty across the institution, accepted as an IRB-approved project with manuscript in progress
  • A Resident Well-Being study, based on institutional GME-derived survey data, accepted as an IRB-approved project with manuscript in progress
  • A Trauma-Informed Care initiative, including (1) introducing national best practice clinical, (2) educational presentations across residency and medical student learner groups and (3) an IRB-approved study to measure TIC training efficacy among clinical learners
    • Trauma-Informed Care Lecture
  • An Appalachian Healthcare study, looking at the impact of cultural factors including home remedies and conventional wisdom on quality and barriers to patient care at our institution, in development phase

Advocacy Subgroup: 

• Promoting and highlighting healthcare advocacy in many forms:
  • Charleston WIM: A Call to Action (Charleston Women in Medicine)
  • Transgender Health Care 
    • An initiative to inform and update institutional policies regarding care and treatment of transgender and other LGBTQ+ identifying patients and families
  • Advocacy in Medicine (Advocacy in Medicine)
  • A Tale of Two Epidemics: HIV and Substance Use Disorder in Our Community (The Tale of Two Epidemics)
  • FlexPeds: Gender Equity (FlexPeds)
• Partnering with institutional healthcare and professional advocacy groups:
  • EMBRACE

Charleston WIM Business Resource Subgroup:

• A formal Business Resource Group is in development as part of the CAMC Institute for Academic Medicine Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative

Charleston WIM Events and Presentations:

• Charleston WIM Group Topic Discussions 
• Special Events and Presentations