As Director of Neurosurgery at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Professor Kate Drummond AM is a passionate mentor and advocate for her junior colleagues, including neurosurgeon-in- training, Dr Heidi McAlpine.
Professor Kate Drummond (MD 2008) has had a passion for dinosaurs since she was a child — her office at the Royal Melbourne Hospital houses an impressive collection of Jurassic figurines. But despite her interest in extinct creatures, Professor Drummond is not afraid of breaking down outdated and antiquated ways of working and pushing for change to help the next generation of medical students succeed.
Currently, only around 11 per cent of neurosurgeons in Australia are women — a statistic she is keen to change. She believes encouraging greater diversity in the surgical workforce requires greater flexibility in attitudes and in the way the medical system operates.
“The women in my generation who followed this career path had to work so hard — many of us are childless and worked in a way that is not how the next generation want to work. At one point I was on call for a whole year and working 190 hours per fortnight. I had good mentors, but the training was harrowing in terms of the hours and sleep deprivation,” says Professor Drummond.
Medical students are older, trainees are older — instead of training before starting a family, they are training while they are partnered and with children. But the structures we have make flexible training very difficult.
In her unit at Royal Melbourne Hospital, Professor Drummond tries to ‘normalise’ the idea that people have responsibilities outside work that should be accommodated while not compromising patient care. She has multiple trainees with children and makes arrangements that support them.
Dr Heidi McAlpine (BSc(Hons) 2009, MBBS 2013, GradDipSurgicalAnatomy 2015, PhD 2024) is a trainee neurosurgeon and is one of several medical students and professionals mentored by Professor Drummond, who has mentored University of Melbourne students, formally and informally, since 2004. Dr McAlpine will complete her surgical training in 2026 and has two young children. She and Professor Drummond have known each other for 15 years.
“I met Kate on my first day at the Royal Melbourne Hospital when I was a third-year medical student. She asked me what I wanted to do and I said I was looking at a career in neurology — I thought neurosurgeons were very smart and that couldn’t be me. She told me that neurosurgery is not about being smart, it’s about hard work and that stuck. It allowed me to entertain the idea of pursuing a career in neurosurgery,” says Dr McAlpine.
“Kate has encouraged and supported me during parenthood. Being a woman is uncommon in neurosurgery and being a woman with young children is even more unusual. So, you need people like her who lead by example and support women while they’re having children and training.
“I’ve been very fortunate to have Kate as a close mentor and she inspires many of the other people she mentors, too. She prides herself on including everyone in the journey and on ensuring people feel part of the team. She spreads her magic far and wide.”
Professor Drummond and Dr McAlpine also share an interest in global health education and are leaders in an organisation called Pangea Global Health Education. It brings together volunteer healthcare and education professionals who travel to Africa to train health workers and medical students in local communities. This year they spent a few weeks in Malawi.
“My first experience of working overseas was as a 21-year-old medical student in a clinic in southern India. I was woefully underqualified but seeing the inequity was a seminal experience,” says Professor Drummond.
I’ve been involved in global health education ever since. On the recent trip to Malawi, I ran seminars on critical care and surgery for people working in district hospitals.
Outside the operating theatre, Professor Drummond is a Canon at St Paul’s Cathedral and during the COVID lockdowns, she completed a Graduate Diploma in Theology. In the next couple of years, she wants to do a PhD exploring a theological framework for patients with life-threatening brain tumours who nonetheless may have a decade to live. She is also a committed Boston Red Sox baseball fan after living and working in Boston for four years earlier in her career.
Professor Drummond says passing on her skills and knowledge and mentoring the next generation is one of the most rewarding aspects of her work.
“Being surrounded by young people in training means I don’t get stuck in my ways of thinking,” says Professor Drummond.
“For example, this morning I’ve done a ward round with a Year 10 high school work experience student, a person trying to get on to neurosurgical training, and someone who’s just finished training whom I’ve mentored since he was a resident.
You learn how other people see the world. The next generation are energetic for change, and that’s refreshing.
Interested in mentoring a student? Express your interest and find out more here: mdhs.unimelb.edu.au/engage/alumni/mentoring