#InTheEyesOfMC: Moratoriums or is it Moriarty (Gender Transformative Leadership in Healthcare)

Disclaimer 1: This article handles a topic that may be triggering to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.

Disclaimer 2: It is advisable to read the entire series before jumping into today's article

Disclaimer 3:: Rumblings expressed in this article are my own. Feedback is welcome in the comments section or via email: [email protected]

In Insurance, a moratorium period is a temporary pause on payments or obligations, often to help people facing financial difficulties. In psychology, a moratorium is a state in which people (mainly) adolescents are actively exploring options but have not yet made commitments.

Writing this article was super hard and has taken close to two years of writing and rewriting to come up with this snippet for LinkedIn. The reason that I am where I am because of the amazing women who have been in my life in one way or another, especially in the darkest part of my life, especially when it pertained to my ill health because in my society it is largely believed that doctors are superhuman whilst we are not, we can crumble and fall sick, we can go bankrupt even before we know what bank-ful is or worst yet, your childhood traumas can be brought back to service when working in a field your so passionate about (yes all that happened to me).

However, this past week not only saw me mildly triggered by the loss of another young Kenyan doctor by reportedly suicide (article link), but also realised that our Kenyan media is largely a negative reporting entity except when it comes to sports, and the Olympics buzz. Furthermore, the recommendation of Vice President Kamala Harris by President Joe Biden to be the democratic party nominee has been one of the greatest political upsets if you ask me and added to my dopamine centres to get past the week and this is why.

Who is Moriarty

For those that read, you may be familiar with the story of James Moriarty the villain in the Sherlock Holmes book series. Well, my favourite rendition of the book was in the series Elementary, where Moriarty was converted into a female role, Jamie Moriarty.

Now, let's face it, we all have a Jamie Moriarty in our lives, someone who does something so diabolical that you either fight back or run away and what matters is having someone in your corner (sponsor, mentor or coach) to restructure you in one way or another.

There is also a plus side to being a Moriarty, they may just terrorize you to be a better version and more humane leader contrary to the villainous characteristics they may possess. I learnt this the hard way in medical school as I repeated my final year and even a few weeks ago when I missed a meeting and potential job interviews for health reasons but my absence was misconstrued as being reckless and not caring about the roles. However, we leave to fight another day as now I am in a better headspace to continue my search.

Please note that also, other times Moriarty is yourself when you let imposter syndrome have its tight grip on your life journey or if you are a tad too kind to people that people start taking advantage of it. In this instance, I always advise you to show yourself some grace and remember the mirror reflection component. Only you can be the loudest cheerleader of yourself and carry the audacity of either a Baddie (Kenyan Gen-Z) or a Vintage baddie (read Gen-Z associate member) like myself

Moratoriums

Having grown up in a single-parent household that was largely matriarchal, plagued with mental health issues (mother bipolar and father suspected narcissist), I went through my moratorium period two-fold, as an adolescent at the tip of my mother's depression and as an adult in these past two years after transitioning from clinical to non-clinical work. This meant that growing up, I had not only one parent but several deputy parents in my aunts and a dwindling number of uncles and the flag of black tax flown indirectly as I was a recipient due to myopic financial decisions on my end.

This financial decision now haunts me in my hunt for a sponsored postgraduate program as I've gotten conditional offers to attend two programs provided I show proof of funds hence now I am back to the drawing board on the next career steps

Personal story aside, a good moratorium lies in capitalizing on lived experiences and male allies as follows:

• Lived experiences: My experience growing up was a large reason I opted to study medicine whilst the government-sponsored program I was called for was biotechnology. My main dream was to study the brain and its adaptation to resilience-based and tie in a component of nanobots based on one of the science congress presentations I made whilst in high school alongside my science congress partner Anne Mwariri. The dream still holds
• Male Allies: The health workforce is made up of only 25% of men, who hold close to 70% of senior leadership positions. This is something that Women in Global Health found i.e. women form 70% of the workforce but only have 25% of senior leadership roles (see what I did there). Fortunately, more leadership programs are popping up to address leadership and governance issues in health with WomenLift Health focusing purely on women in their mid-careers, a program I recommend for those eligible. On a personal front, it was male allies in the then AMSUN (IFMSA LMO) who pushed for me to become the first MSAKE Kenya Secretary-General in 2016. It was also a male ally that nudged me to vie for IFMSA | International Federation of Medical Students' Associations Team of Officials (though I spectacularly failed in those elections) and yet again it was another male ally that nudged me to vie for Chair of the Junior Doctors Network of the World Medical Association. The system works.
• Seizing the day: Thanks to Women in Global Health (when they were stable), I got the opportunity to attend the 2023 Africa Health Agenda International Conference and my very first United Nations High-Level Meeting where I spoke at three side events all whilst submitting my candidature and campaigning for the World Medical Association Junior Doctors Network Chair position. Two unique things happened on this trip. On the last day of the event, the WGH leadership team were so sure that I was going to win the election happening in the next two weeks, whilst I had already lost hope, as I was set to start work on the same week of the elections and hesitant of my capability of winning an election whilst partially attending the event online (unfortunately my health had other plans and I found some time to attend the event and get the help of the in-person Kenyan delegation to assist in campaigning). However, my most memorable piece of advice was from a Kenyan doctor and for those who followed me on Instagram, I once shared how this senior colleague once told me, "Kaende, Kaende" (just do it) when I mentioned to her how I might be called to read an intervention at the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR) and I was feeling unprepared. The Kaende ended up well

You Can Do It Any Way You Want

I have more instances of these instances of gender transformative leadership to share but in a nutshell, my main advice to attain gender transformative leadership and recover from the many setbacks life throws at you is an excerpt I took from one of the recovery guidebooks dubbed, "You Can Do It Any Way You Want" or as Dr Amakove Wala says do you and the world will adjust