Why I Am A Healthcare Communicator

Eight years ago I was recruited for my first healthcare job. I was going to school and working part-time at a fitness center north of Dallas. One morning one of my bright-eyed, bushy-tailed early-riser gym goers pulled me aside and told me about his job as a radiology manager for a major hospital just 15 minutes south on the Dallas North Tollway. He said, “I’ve been watching you for the past few weeks. Every morning at 5 a.m., you greet each person who comes through those doors with a huge smile and a great attitude. That’s exactly the kind of team member I want. I’m willing to train you as well. Are you interested?” I had no idea how that simple interaction would change the trajectory of my professional career.

I started working as a radiology technician aide a few weeks after his offer. I had taught swim lessons and worked as a lifeguard before, so the CPR and first aid training were familiar to me. What I wasn’t prepared for – and ultimately captivated by – was the vulnerability of a patient’s experience.

With the exception of having a baby, most patients don’t arrive at a hospital happy-go-lucky and with a great attitude. More often than not, especially in radiology, the circumstances of the visit come with severe anxiety and apprehension, because their follow-up doctor’s appointment may deliver unwelcome news. I discovered a passion and strength of mine in that role – to help people in vulnerable moments feel comfortable. Before I knew it, I fell in love with healthcare.

Around this time in my college career, I was deciding on a major. I knew in my heart that I was not destined to be a nurse or doctor (although I flirted with the idea on a few occasions through the years), but I could not shake my attraction to the healthcare experience. I wanted to be a part of the patient journey. Fast forward to 2010 and I found myself graduating with a bachelor’s degree in public relations, and an “unofficial” minor in healthcare, into a disastrous economic landscape.

Meanwhile, there were two unsettling industrial revolutions taking place. Healthcare was being turned upside down. Social media, unknown less than a decade before, was beginning to mean something to businesses as well, although they weren’t sure what that looked like yet. All that businesses could recognize, in a cloud of foreshadowing, was that the “Tweet, twit, twatter thing” and “the Facebooks” site that the kids were using was transforming the way people communicate with one another.

Despite the uncertainty of graduating in one of worst economic times since the Great Depression, I will forever be thankful for the opportunity to begin my career on the ground floor of the modern healthcare communications industry. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know some of the great thought-leaders of the healthcare technology and healthcare social media communities. I also had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness first-hand a “pouring of the concrete” of two industries, full of potential, to improve our lives in every possible, and still unimaginable, way.

I continue to be inspired by the remarkable uncertainties that my career has yet to be challenged by, but I also am thankful for the patient stories that remind me of why I decided to focus my career on healthcare.

I am a healthcare communicator, and I am proud to be a part of the patient experience.