Building Bridges: Enhancing Networking Skills for Trainees and Early Career Pediatricians in Academic Medicine

Sunday, April 27, 2025

2:00pm – 3:30pm HST

Location: Convention Center: 303

CE: CME: 1.5
Ethics CME: 1.5

Leader(s)

Michael Petrus-Jones, DO, MPH, MS (he/him/his)

Fellow
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas, United States

Co-Leader(s)

Ovini Rodrigo, MD, MSEd, MS (she/her/hers)

General Academic Pediatrics Fellow
Boston Children's Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
AT

Andria Tatem, MD MEd (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor
Eastern Virginia Medical School
Norfolk, Virginia, United States
Sandra McKay, MD

Associate Professor
Pediatrics
McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Missouri City, Texas, United States
Paola Braña-Rivera, MD (she/her/hers)

Pediatric Chief Resident, Junior Attending
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida, United States

Disclosure(s):

Michael Petrus-Jones, DO, MPH: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.

Ovini Rodrigo, MD, MSEd, MS: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.

Andria Tatem, MD MEd: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.

Sandra McKay, MD: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.

Paola E. Braña-Rivera, MD: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.

Workshop Description: Career development is essential to success in academic medicine but is often overlooked and inadequately emphasized when training physicians. There are skills within career development domains that can be honed and perfected to optimize advancement in academic careers, including creating and maintaining professional relationships. Networking is one such skill that many successful academic physicians do well, but there is little training or skill building to hone this skill. Professional relationships with established physicians such as mentors, coaches, and sponsors can help to open doors to early career academic physicians, can nurture career success, and can be mutually beneficial. These relationships can also provide much needed representation to underrepresented groups and women, who are still striving for career equity in all sectors, including academic medicine. It is imperative that time is spent to nurture communication and networking skills to develop such relationships. This session is designed to provide a theoretical framework and basis for networking and professional relationships on which participants can build skills to utilize in their own careers. The session offers several practical applications and participation to practice the skills that will be introduced. We hope that the skills introduced and developed in this session will be easily translated to real-world career scenarios and ultimately help participants to move forward successfully in their academic medicine careers. Although the skills developed in this session are tailored to early career physicians, they are applicable to any phase of careers in academics.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion, participants will understand the importance of networking in academic medicine and career development, particularly for Underrepresented in Medicine groups and women.
Upon completion, participants will be able to differentiate theoretical frameworks for networking and various professional relationships, including mentors, coaches, and sponsors.
Upon completion, participants will be able to apply practical networking skills and create a personal action plan to implement networking strategies.