Age: 34

Role: Underwriter and Assistant Vice-President, Healthcare Liability, Endurance Specialty Insurance Ltd.

What is your job? I am a Healthcare Liability Insurance Underwriter at Endurance Specialty Insurance Ltd. Our Healthcare Liability Department offers third party excess liability coverage for US hospitals and provides either direct insurance or reinsurance to captive insurance companies. Our clients are multi-hospital systems, academic medical centers and specialty hospitals such as pediatric hospitals. They are sophisticated buyers who assume a large portion of their own risk and are dedicated to quality and patient safety. I handle all stages of the underwriting process including marketing, risk analysis and contract negotiation. Customers come to Bermuda to present their organisation to insurance carriers and discuss their renewal strategies. As an underwriter, I participate in these meetings and also share with customers, my company's vision, operations and products. In order to get a better understanding of the risk associated with healthcare, I often have the opportunity to tour several of my clients facilities and experience first hand, all the innovative quality and patient safety measures that hospitals are undergoing.

What is the favourite part of your job? I definitely enjoy the research aspect of my position! A major part of my responsibilities as an underwriter is to prepare a thorough analysis of the customer's organization for evaluation. Healthcare is such an identifiable industry, that one can't help but be intrigued by what goes on in a hospital. Doing the research gives me a profound sense of the organisation's operations, specialties and medical technology and I'm able to draw a distinction between each establishment. Performing the research also allows me to be more aware of healthcare issues, such as being able to identify various diseases and medical conditions and also being knowledgeable in the specialized care that's available. I also examine numerous medical malpractice claims and identifying what can go wrong in a medical setting is truly captivating.

What is the least favourite part of your job? My profession involves frequent travel. I value the opportunity to attend out-of-town conferences/seminars and I especially look forward to the hospital tours. But as a single parent, it can sometimes be emotionally difficult to leave my children behind. Although they are safe with family members, I still miss them.

What is your most interesting experience at work? A few years ago, a co-worker of mine had a heart attack and she had no family in Bermuda. She listed the manager of my department as her next of kin, so the hospital called my manager in to inform her of the incident. My manager immediately contacted all of the staff to let us know what happened and in a matter of hours everyone in our department made their way to the hospital to show their support. As we were waiting with her, the doctor came in and started to explain all the tests they needed to run to determine the extent of the heart attack. Whilst the doctor was talking, one of my co-workers interrupted her and shrewdly asked: "Did you give her an aspirin?". The rest of us nodded in agreement and informed the doctor that we were medical malpractice underwriters and that we knew that in some instances of heart attacks, it is appropriate for the hospital to give the patient an aspirin. The doctor was taken back a bit by us all, but she was accommodating and took the time to explain specific details to appease us. The doctor probably thought we were a bunch of 'office nerds' that didn't know the first thing about healthcare! We all laughed about it later! That particular incident stands out because instead of reading about it, I was actually experiencing the whole process. My co-workers and I were the alarmed family members waiting in the ER with the patient; scared, concerned and very aware of what can go wrong. Luckily, the patient's heart attack wasn't critical and she's doing just fine.

What would you be doing otherwise? The insurance industry wasn't my first choice career path and like many insurance professionals, I stumbled into the industry at a young age. Over time, I developed a genuine passion for my line of business and I love what I do! However, I absolutely adore children and I've always had an interest in teaching. If circumstances were different, I think I could have been a teacher.