Episode 9: Dr Pauline Morris - Being An Anaesthetist In The Middle East, Nurturing Medics In Difficulty, Failing With Grace And Olive Branches For Teenage Mothers

Pauline Morris is a consultant anaesthetist working in women and children's medicine in Qatar, having moved from practice in the United Kingdom  three years ago. Pauline qualified from the University of West Indies, Barbados in 1999 and became a consultant anaesthetist in 2010. Working in London hospitals until 2018, she chose a career redirection and relocated to Qatar, taking up an appointment as Assistant Professor of Clinical Anaesthesiology at Weill Cornell University. Her background has been focused consistently on teaching and training as well as mentorship roles of younger parents. Back in the United Kingdom she specialised in clinical governance for anaesthesia and theatres, investigating serious untoward incidents as well as root cause analysis investigation.Having studied Life coaching and mindfulness, she founded Doctors Caring For Doctors, an organisation focused on life coaching for medics in difficulty, needing career direction, wanting to get something off their chest, or all of the above. We kick off with swapping notes on life as a medic in a pandemic in Qatar versus that in the UK. At about the 20minute time-mark we talk about getting into trouble, how the attitude of second being first loser can ultimately break us, and the heartwarming story of Pauline's teenage pregnancy and how this moulded her calling in medicine. She discusses her  passions and altruistic attitudes to her peers, of which we talk more on this in part 2 with further emphasis on her  organisation. At 50 minutes into the podcast to the close we discuss how to fail with grace and the gifts of effective mentorship. I personally consider this episode one of favourites,  finding her life advice inspirational and uplifting, and she is a real sage. Please enjoy this wide ranging conversation with Dr Pauline Morris.