Krupa Patel

I gotta shout out the parents. I'm a first-gen student. I don't have anybody in my family that's in medicine, and I feel like I have had these wonderful parents and siblings and family that has had my back and never stopped believing in me, so I owe it to them. And then I also owe it to every single woman who came before me and showed me that I'm not gonna be the first, and I definitely won't be the last. I think whenever you get down in the dumps and you have hard days, because you will, I like to think about how I'm living someone's dream life, and it really grounds me and reminds me how grateful I am and how I can't wait to wake up the next day and live the life that I'm living.

The best advice I've ever received, and I give it to everybody, is you are always in a position to mentor other people. You are in a position that someone else out there is dreaming of. I think, no matter what it is that you think you're doing, or whether you think you've reached your path at the end all the way or you have so much farther to go, it doesn't matter. There is someone out there that you are living their dream life. You are exactly where they want to be at. And I think it's important to remember that, and I think it humbles you and makes you grateful and also makes sure that you always kind of give back. Whenever you get down in the dumps and you have hard days, because you will, that's what I like to think of, and it really grounds me and reminds me how grateful I am.

I would say be proud of who you are, be proud of your womanhood. It is not something to hide, it is not something to be ashamed of. It is what will make you the best doctor, the best physician, the best surgeon in the world. I think a lot of us women, or a lot of young women, and I was in this position, feel the need to mute or hide or be ashamed of the things that make us feminine women, because we feel like there's no place for it, or it makes us look weak or incompetent. It doesn't. It's the best thing ever. I have giggled with physicians about what blush I'm wearing, the nail that I have on, and I've connected with so many humans because I'm a female, and I think it's an incredible thing that we bring to patient care, that we bring as people, and I think it's important to take pride in that and not feel like it's something to hide.

I think stereotypes is a big one, especially going into the most male-dominated field in medicine. I think people expect you to look a certain way, carry a certain amount of strength, and I think that those judgments can be really difficult - walking into a room and having people not think that you're the doctor, but think that you're a nurse. It always stings when people don't expect you to look like what you want to go into. And then also just the imposter syndrome and the doubt. It can be really isolating when you're the only woman going into it, and being surrounded in this field where it feels like, man, am I ever gonna get out of it? Am I ever gonna just belong and find a community? So really staying true to yourself, not changing who you are, being confident in yourself, and feeling like you deserve to be there, those are all very active challenges that I think we go through every day. But I think there's a lot of room to pave the way for women that come after. I am Indian. There's not a lot of us that go into orthopedics. It's actually one of the least diverse in terms of racial ethnicities, so I think it's really nice to be able to do that and show people that you can do it. I think it's also really important to show different body types and different people of all sorts of backgrounds go into this field. I don't lift, I don't power lift, I don't quite look like the orthopedic surgeon that I think people think of when they see on media. But I think it's so important for people to see someone with a different body type, a different ethnicity, a different background, someone who doesn't have someone in medicine go into it, because I think it shows them an opportunity, it shows them a dream that can be achieved.

I think balance can be really hard. I like to think of my support system, whether it's professionally or personally, that helps me be the best version of myself. So really leaning into the people that invigorate me, that bring a lot of life out of me, that I know that I can also go to and talk to about my hard days and my failures. That's a really important value that I have. Another one is just to be kind to everybody. You never know what someone else is going through. I really care about being the best self of yourself out there, because that's kind of what you're going to receive from the world as well.