Surgeons, trainees and researchers who are also parents may find it a lot easier to attend the 2026 Association of Surgical Education (ASE) annual meeting this April, thanks to the efforts of ASE president Aimee Gardner, PhD, also a professor in the Division of GI, Trauma, and Endocrine Surgery at the University of Colorado Anschutz Department of Surgery.
With financial support from the Department of Surgery and other sponsors, Gardner has created the Lil’ Scrubs Club, a free onsite childcare center offered to attendees of the annual meeting.
“The meeting is more than an academic showcase; it is an incubator for innovation, networking, and a potential gateway to leadership opportunities,” Gardner says. “Unfortunately, for many — particularly those with young children — attending meetings like this can bring a steep personal cost that complicates the decision and ability to attend. The lack of childcare options has forced parents, most often women and early-career faculty, to choose between professional advancement and family responsibilities.”
Night and day
Hence the Lil’ Scrubs Club, where attending parents can sign up for hourlong blocks, based on their schedule, for all the days and nights of the conference.
“It’s not just during the day, for the presentations and main educational events, but there are also options to send your kids there in the evening hours, during the networking events and the awards banquet,” Gardner says. “We know those informal settings are often when those connections and valued relationships are emerging and growing.”
Removing barriers
As a mom to three kids, Gardner knows how important it is to have childcare available at a conference like the ASE meeting, especially for early-career attendees.
“Attending scientific conferences is critical for career advancement,” she says. “You have to disseminate your work and network and find mentors just to go through the promotion and advancement process, but it’s also about getting your work out there and finding collaborators. Being a parent can be a pretty big barrier, especially when you have small children and you think about, ‘OK, who's going to care for them while I'm gone?’ Or what if you're breastfeeding? It becomes a difficult decision of, do I stay, or do I go?”
A survey sent to ASE members during conference planning showed great interest in a free childcare option, Gardner says.
“We asked, ‘Would you utilize this resource?’ And we got overwhelmingly, wildly positive feedback that, ‘Absolutely — this would be a game changer. I wasn't planning to come, but now I can come.’”
Broader support
The Lil’ Scrubs Club is the latest on a long list of ways the CU Anschutz Department of Surgery works to support parents and parents-to-be. As outlined in a recent paper by Nicole Christian, MD, associate professor of surgical oncology, the department was part of a recent national trend toward improving conditions, especially for trainees.
“There were some high-profile papers published around 2018, 2019, looking at how surgeons had increased pregnancy complications, including premature labor, preeclampsia, NICU stays, and C-section rates, primarily because people were delaying having children,” Christian says. “Subsequently, there was a cultural push to say, ‘We shouldn't be asking our trainees to delay their family plans when we know that they're going to be faced with increased medical complications and infertility.’”
In the same time period, she says, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the American Board of Surgery changed their policies to allow trainees to take more time off during training for family medical leave without delaying graduation. Shortly after that, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a national conversation about how to support parents when their children were being homeschooled.
“There's often a lack of practical solutions to these problems, but we’re gaining a much deeper understanding of what the barriers, concerns, and opportunities are,” Christian says. “A program like the Lil’ Scrubs Club is a great example of a practical solution to some of these concerns.”
‘It only makes us better’
Whether it’s at the ASE annual meeting or on the CU Anschutz campus, Gardner says, support for parents results in greater equity and representation across the board.
“We're very fortunate that CU Surgery is leading the way and helping ensure a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable educational experience for everyone,” Gardner says. “It only makes people happier and more motivated to do their jobs, which only makes us better.”
