#womenINVICTA - Barbara German

The Warsaw Clinic opened in the autumn of 2008, and I joined the team in February 2009. From the beginning, I have been in the role of the clinic’s medical coordinator. My initial task was to organize the hospital ward in the clinic. It was a big challenge. Creating new procedures – not only related to patient admission but also to new treatments, organizing the team’s work – doctors, operating room nurses, anesthetist nurses, organizing the operating block, and ensuring the necessary equipment. All of this had to happen for the hospital ward to start functioning in our clinic.

I remember my first day at work. I remember walking into the clinic and thinking – Oh God, it’s so beautiful here, such beautiful colors 😊 I had never been to a clinic that was so colorful before. INVICTA is very colorful. Coming here from another workplace, I thought to myself – how beautiful it is here 😊 I liked it!

I am definitely closest to working in the hospital ward because I have been involved in it from the beginning, and I was previously an instrument nurse myself, so this area is probably the closest to me. However, I don’t think there is any area of work that I don’t like. I enjoy working with people. I like people in general, I like talking to them. It’s important because the patients I work with are the hospital ward patients who need information – we talk to them, we tell them about the procedures that will be performed. Sometimes patients need more support, they have more questions, and they also come to me.

I remember the first laparoscopy that I organized. It was a big challenge. I remember that procedure. The organizational challenge was significant, and the responsibility was even greater. And there was great satisfaction that everything worked out perfectly, that as a team, we handled it very well.

Oh, there’s no boredom here 😊 We are constantly introducing new procedures, new tests. Some genetic tests are practically not available anywhere else but in our clinics. I could learn it all here. There is no time to be bored.

Right now, I think the atmosphere is the most important to me. I feel professionally fulfilled. It is important to me that everyone knows what their responsibilities are, that there is no chaos, and that we can rely on each other’s help in difficult situations as a team. These are things that are important to me, and we have them in our team in Warsaw.

I chose responsibility, but in reality, responsibility is one of the many components of a responsible person, and in my position – and in general, in work at the clinic – responsibility is important. A responsible person, to me, is someone who strives to perform their work conscientiously, diligently, and tries to meet the requirements set before them. I am convinced that if others see our sincere intentions and our diligent work, it even translates into good relationships within the team.

In my position, it is important, and I believe that in our work, mutual responsibility and trust are the greatest values. And we are an interesting team because we are very diverse.

Yes! I really enjoy working in a diverse age group. I believe that we all learn from each other and work together quite well. In my opinion, that’s how it should be. We should take advantage of what younger generations have to offer and also learn from the experience of the mature ones. Working in a diverse team is very rewarding, and having a mixed-gender team is even better. In our profession, achieving gender diversity is challenging because there are significantly more women, but we embrace the diversity in terms of age.