In Escape from the Bedside, Sharon Baltman tells us the tale of her life and her 40 year career of practicing medicine and pushing the boundaries of her career.
Baltman takes her readers on on self-described “journey of life-long learning” through the stories of her life, from the mundane – the daily duties of a doctor, to the extraordinary – her travels through Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Following a brief description of her childhood, Baltman’s story begins with her decision to pursue a career in medicine and the instantaneous resistance she met. For a young woman in the sixties, becoming a doctor was a radical idea and Baltman was forced to defend her choice to everyone around her. The forms of resistance varied – from family members who encouraged her to follow an easier career such as teaching to those who told her that she could never be a doctor because of her “big breasts.” But the greater the resistance, the more Baltman was convinced that this was what she was meant to do, and her stubbornness earned her a spot in the University of Toronto’s pre-med program. Of course medical school was only the beginning of her career as a woman in a male-dominated field. In an interview about the book, Baltman reflects on the strides that have been made for women in these fields — and also the amount of work that still needs to be done. The majority of medical school students today might be women but there are still plenty of male-dominated fields out there – engineering being a prime example. For Baltman it’s easy to identify with the difficulties faced by these women. She talk about having no female professors or role models while in medical school and not recognizing that as a strange thing. But her perseverance is what has allowed her to now become a role model to the young women still struggling in male-dominated professions.
Even after graduating from medical school, Baltman’s career choice came with difficulties. As a woman entering a profession with male colleagues and male superiors, Baltman was often faced with tough choices about professional ethics. From an alcoholic supervisor to working with a surgeon who refused to believe a patient’s story about being conscious during surgery Baltman faced a lot of difficult choices about speaking up to her superiors. She talks about the complications of professional ethics and about learning to find her own voice and being true to herself. She insists that her approach has always been to “face adversity with humour and dignity and being true to ourselves.”
Despite the difficulties she faced, Baltman did not follow a traditional career and instead chose to continue learning and expanding her knowledge throughout her life. Although large NGOs have made practicing medicine overseas easy today, Baltman travelled overseas as part of a mission in order to practice medicine in a tiny village in Ghana. She also spent a year working in Israel. Baltman has an incredible love of travelling and the learning that comes from seeing different parts of the world — a love she has passed down to her daughter.
But Baltman’s unique approach to her career is not just present in where she’s worked but also in the work she chooses to do. From learning non-traditional forms of healing such as acupuncture at a time when they were ridiculed by many people in her profession, to pursuing her passion for listening to patients and understanding patients, to eventually practicing psychotherapy, a unique form of medicine that focuses on patient stories.
Escape from the Bedside, a book 10 years in the making, is a great read about one woman’s journey towards a career that is meaningful. From students entering into professional fields to professionals with years of experience everyone will be able to find something to connect with in Escape from the Bedside. The book is available for purchase at Words Worth Books in Uptown Waterloo and the first three chapters are available to read on Amazon.
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