E159 - Creating a Supportive Culture of Leadership with Sharmila Dissanaike

Dr. Sharmila Dissanaike is a trauma and acute care surgeon and is the chair of surgery at Texas Tech University. She holds multiple national leadership roles, including as President-Elect of the American Burn Association, Vice-President of the Southwest Surgical Congress, and Governor of the American College of Surgeons. We really delved into her thoughts on her philosophy on leadership. How do you create a supportive culture? How do you make the hard decisions and have the hard conversations? Most importantly, how do we stay true to ourselves and our own values?

X/Twitter: https://x.com/DissanaikeMD

Links:

• Burnout, shiftwork and suicide: 2022 Scott B. Frame Memorial Lecture. https://journals-lww-com.proxy.queensu.ca/jtrauma/fulltext/2022/07000/burnout,_shiftwork_and_suicide__2022_scott_b_.21.aspx
• New Yorker piece about Brittany Bankhead-Kendall, a trauma surgeon recruited & supported by Dr. Dissanaike: https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/a-doctors-dark-year
• How to prevent burnout (maybe): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27810134/

Creators and Guests

Host

Dr. Ameer Farooq

What is Cold Steel: Canadian Journal of Surgery Podcast?

The podcast dedicated to discussing how surgeons can be the best versions of themselves, inside and outside the operating room. Hosted by surgeons Chad Ball and Ameer Farooq, Cold Steel explores the many facets of surgical life with guests at the cutting edge of surgical science. The official podcast of the Canadian Journal of Surgery.