{"id":17057,"date":"2019-03-13T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/feminem.org\/?p=17057"},"modified":"2019-03-13T13:33:37","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T18:33:37","slug":"life-of-a-mother-and-an-em-researcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feminem.org\/2019\/03\/13\/life-of-a-mother-and-an-em-researcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Life of a Mother and an EM Researcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was young, my dream was to become a great doctor and have a great family!<\/p>\n

But, because I come from a rural family that does not believe in a career for a woman or marrying for love all these seemed impossible. I decided to study very hard so that I could be the best and get government sponsorship for my medical school.<\/p>\n

I worked as a general practitioner <\/em><\/strong>at one of the rural hospitals. I was disappointed and frustrated every day because people were dying due to lack of emergency medicine <\/em><\/strong>expertise. I wanted to quit, so I applied for a Job at Muhimbili National hospital cardiac unit since being a cardiologist was what I wanted. <\/em>To my surprise I was assigned to the <\/em><\/strong>emergency department and this was the first time in my life that I even <\/em><\/strong>heard of emergency medicine as a specialty! I cried and asked to be assigned anywhere else but not ED! Because emergency medicine had only been a specialty for <\/em><\/strong>2 years in my country, I never got a chance to learn this in medical school, so I thought that all the critically ill patients that came to MY ED were going to die just as it happened at the rural hospital. But here, I found a group of young, dedicated physicians who were so committed and every day they were doing interesting things to patients including successful CPR which I had never seen <\/em><\/strong>before in my life except in movies! I looked at them and thought to myself, ‘I don\u2019t know where these people are going but I am going to follow them anywhere because they are just amazing, and I want to be like them!’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

My first month in <\/em><\/strong>the ED was the most interesting experience of my life.<\/em><\/strong> I loved it and changed my dream of cardiology and decided to make emergency medicine <\/em><\/strong>my career. I did EM residency with the financial support of EM physicians from the US. My EM residency is what introduced me to research<\/em><\/strong>! When I started, <\/em><\/strong>a lot of things were unknown! EM physicians were trying to create solutions for our problems that fit our setting! I decided to do research when I realized the impact my<\/u> research could <\/em><\/strong>have to my community!<\/p>\n

I am so happy my biggest dreams came true<\/em><\/strong>! <\/strong>Right now, I am an amazing doctor<\/em><\/strong> at the nicest hospital in the country, I just love going to work, it\u2019s my passion. Guess what! 11 years ago, I fell in love and got married to a man who loves me and supports my work every day, we have a blessing of 2 lovely kids! I have an awesome family<\/em><\/strong>! I have so much respect for all men who support their wives career growth, YOU ROCK!<\/p>\n

I know career in emergency medicine, and kids, has always been a challenge, but here is a perspective<\/em><\/strong> of where I come from! I live 29 miles <\/strong>from the hospital where I work which may not sound like a lot, but it takes me up to three hours to get to work because <\/strong>I drive through rough roads and very heavy traffic every day! Sometimes when it rains, I must change my timetable completely because there is no way to get to hospital from my home. I deal with frequent loss of power and internet connection which makes it so difficult to work as a researcher. My husband is an agricultural specialist and I come from a family of farmers, I spare time for farming and I even keep chicken at my house.<\/p>\n

So, if you put it all together, you would think my life is <\/em><\/strong>chaos, but it\u2019s not, simply because I I learnt important principles that govern my daily life!<\/p>\n

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  1. PASSION<\/strong>: Find it, follow it! Do something you love, it\u2019s easier to commit succeed<\/li>\n
  2. ROLE MODELS<\/strong>: very powerful, people whose behavior serves as an example, you want to be like them<\/li>\n
  3. ORGANIZATION<\/strong>: plan your days and respect your plans, learn to say no when your plate is full<\/li>\n
  4. CONSISTENCY<\/strong>: be consistent! <\/em><\/strong>If you do anything regularly as a habit, you will end up getting results, good or bad.<\/li>\n
  5. PERSISTENCE<\/strong>: it pays off! There are many obstacles to achieving our career goals as women! we should keep going despite difficulties or opposition<\/li>\n
  6. MENTORSHIP<\/strong>: choose mentors and learn from them because \u2018an apple doesn\u2019t fall far from the Tree\u2019<\/li>\n
  7. MAKE IT WORTHYWHILE<\/strong>: Be good job at your job! When you are with your family, really be with them.  Pursue your dreams<\/em><\/strong> for the sake of those who sacrifice so much to support our busy life, don\u2019t let them down!<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Watch the FIX18 talk below!<\/em><\/p>\n