Paediatric Surgeons Miss Rachel Harwood and Miss Sarah Almond are making waves at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital by coupling life-changing surgery with equally impactful research into important conditions such as Hirschsprung’s Disease. They share the twists and turns that led them both to deeply satisfying careers in Paediatric Surgery.
Miss Rachel Harwood, Paediatric Surgeon, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital
There are so many aspects to my job that I love! I love getting to work with children and their families. The dynamics between doctors and patients are completely different in paediatrics than in adult care in a great way.
We get to work as a team with the parents being the experts in knowing their child and us being an expert in their condition.
Children can be incredibly unwell but also have a brilliant capacity to bounce back and so the work is incredibly satisfying.
Paediatric Surgery is a relatively new speciality, so we are still learning new and better ways to care for children and there is a huge scope to continue to do so. I think it goes without saying that I love to operate – and the procedures that we train to do are incredibly broad compared to all other surgical specialities – so we have lots of opportunities to make children better with life saving / life changing / life improving operations that can affect them for the rest of their life.
I didn’t always want to be a surgeon. I have always felt that I wanted to work in Paediatrics but in my final year of medical school and F1/F2 years really enjoyed the surgical specialities that I did… but didn’t feel like I loved them enough to dedicate myself to surgery.
I got a Paediatric NTN and my first rotation was in Paediatric Surgery and I realised that this was the perfect speciality! I spoke to lots of people about swapping specialities and importantly for me was working with Mrs Lawson, a Paediatric Surgeon who has now retired, who was amazing at her job and had a family, two things that are really important to me. I applied for Core Surgical Training and have never looked back!
I’m really fortunate to have worked with some brilliant people throughout my training. Mrs Lawson was really an inspiration for me in terms of choosing my career path. When I started as a registrar I worked for Miss Almond and even since then she has been a great source of advice and support for me as I have navigated training and combining this with having and raising my family.
Having female role models who have trodden the path before makes a huge difference and I’m now really lucky to call Miss Almond a consultant colleague. My other mentor is Prof Kenny who was my PhD supervisor at Liverpool and who has given me huge opportunities around developing my research interest and continues to mentor me around my career development.
Finding something you love to do is great, finding a team who you love to do it with is amazing!
Don’t just think about what the job is like now but think about what it will be like in 5, 10, 20 years' time. Your career is long so spend time building it up and think about adding extra things to it early – whether that is research, education or leadership.
At Undergrad level, I think the important thing is to really commit yourself to your rotations, do the reading, spend time speaking to patients and families and get the key skills that you need to be a great doctor. When there are opportunities for student selected modules then pick things you are interested in and try and find a clinical team that have a good reputation for engaging with students because that will be a good way to get some added extras – whether that is operative experience or studies which lead to posters, presentations or publications.
It’s important at medical school to develop a good friendship group (not necessarily medics) and ways of relaxing, whether that be exercise or crafting etc. Being a resident doctor can be intense and having support networks in place is important as you progress through your career.
Miss Sarah Almond, Paediatric Surgeon and Deputy Director of Surgery, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital
Most of what we do is reconstructive surgery rather than resections, so we are trying to make functional anatomy instead of removing things. That means that we have a long-term relationship with families as the see children grow from babies into adults. It's a huge privilege.
Paediatric Surgery wasn't always the goal - I only realised that I wanted to do it after working in Alder Hey when I met some inspiring surgeons and saw the range of complex and delicate procedures they were doing. The biggest stepping stones for me were returning to uni to undertake a research degree (taught me a different way to look at the world) and having children (it is possible, though there's never a good time. Also taught me a different way to look at the world).
I would say there are three people who have been my biggest role models, all of them started as my boss but became my colleagues. I owe my career to them all.
I wish there had been more female role models when I was training but I am now proud to work in possibly the only surgical department in the UK where more than 50% of the consultants are women.
The best piece of advice I’ve ever received? “You can always pull a stoma”, “Small cuts, small mistakes” and “Always put the patient first”
The best advice I can give? Make contact with surgeons in areas you are interested in! Most of us are happy to chat, would love to have you spend some time with us and have research projects we can involve you in.
Choose a speciality that you love. You can't have everything, which means there are sacrifices to be made in some areas of your life but it all balances out eventually.
Discover more
- Alder Hey Children’s Hospital is just one of the exciting placement sites you get to experience on the MBChB course here at Liverpool. Take a look at our A100 and A101 programmes to learn more about the breadth of clinical exposure on offer.
- Looking to follow in Miss Harwood and Miss Almond’s footsteps? Check out the wide range of surgical societies, including of course our fantastic Women in Surgery Society, available at Liverpool Guild of Students to help you build your network and skillset in this area.
- Come along to the School of Medicine Careers Fair, Wednesday 12 Nov, for a chance to chat firsthand more inspirational clinicians, hear about their career journeys, what it’s like to work in their field and how you could be taking steps in that direction. Register for free on Handshake, open to all Liverpool student doctors.