02/25/2022
Do you know your Why? Why do you do what you do? What makes you excited to go to work? What fuels your passion for the job? Why do you spend 40, 60 hours a week working? Why do you give up time with your family and friends? Not the practical “pay the bills,” but why you chose the field you are in and why you remain. What lights your fire, your passion for the job?
Having a successful IT career spanning multiple vertical markets, I can look at my experience and find my why. I have spent the better part of three decades improving my skills, learning innovative technology and best practices, and dreaming of new ways to solve problems. I can find solutions when there seem to be none. Work through interoperability and architectural design of systems. Remain within the regulations, policies, and procedures; focus on all aspects of security. It is logical problem solving. It is standards and solutions. It is training others, mentoring, and sharing with upcoming generations. I have dedicated my time and resources to being the absolute best I can be. But technology is my What not my Why.
I like to think of my career as my story. Chapters full of the highs of successful implementations and technical transitions and the drama of system failures and business challenges. But the technology is not what makes the story interesting; it does not keep the reader fascinated until the end. The people make the story.
I have worked alongside the most talented, brilliant, interesting, and fun colleagues at all levels. They have been a part of many of my stories that would evoke every emotion from happiness to tears, frustration to elation, and more laughter than I ever expected. As my career has evolved, these colleagues have become dear friends and trusted advisors. But they are not my Why.
When I made the move into healthcare technology, IT transitioned from pure business needs and bottom-line dollars to impacting the life and well-being of patients and their families. Healthcare put a face on IT I had not experienced before. While I had dealt with internal IT needs, clients, and customers, IT was more about the tech and less about the actual people. Healthcare started with the caregivers, seeing how technology could improve their workday or frustrate it. Provide information at the touch of their fingers or challenge them when systems did not function as expected. But the end goal of every caregiver, the finish line, was the patient and their families.
I admire those providing patient care with utmost respect. Sometimes, yes, I do wish I were gifted with those skills to take care of patients, but my skill set is different. Making it a point to round in healthcare facilities often, I see not only how technology improves the patient care, but a better understanding of how frontline workflow could be eased with technology, communication with patients can improve, and IT should not always push “more tech” where it is not needed. Rounding made me appreciate the day in a caregiver’s world.
I began to understand my Why as I was interacting with patients and families in hundreds of hospitals across the nation. From acute to emergent care, behavioral health to long term care, I take time to value the connections made which reinforce my sense of purpose in utilizing my skills. Certain interactions come to the forefront of my story when I look at my Why.
At (Northside) Gwinnett, I was rounding one morning after an all-night IT change management session. Tired. Exhausted. Walking the floors to ensure nothing untoward was impacting patient care. I came to a floor where the staff were in other patient rooms. We had a rule there, no call light unanswered. When I passed a room with the red light on, I stopped in to see if I could help the patient by tracking down a nurse or getting some water. A very frail, precious grandmother was in the room. She wanted her husband. Looking for him; calling out to him; not fully in the present. I did find a nurse and the nurse had called him and he would come, just not now. So, I went back to her room. What she really wanted was company. Someone to listen. Someone to take the loneliness away. Someone to care. For a very brief period, I got to be that someone in her life. She most likely did not remember me once I left the room, but she made a memory for me. The fact that it is all about the patients. The respect for the caregivers, what they give daily and the intangible investment others may not see. This precious grandmother became part of my story.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Egleston. Early in the pandemic. Life is sideways for the world. I am standing in the middle of the cafeteria watching digital solutions go live. Observing customers come through the café. My mind not really on the people but focused on how to improve technology. Then a mother caught my eye. She was standing in the middle of the café, a blank expression on her face, worry lines creasing her eyes, rumpled clothes and looking lost. I walked up to see if I could help her. She just looked at me. No words. Then it hit me. I asked her if she had a child in the hospital. She just broke down in tears. Her child was in surgery. She had to hand her child over to the nurses and watch him whisked away into the operating room. There was nothing she could do. She was hurting and lost. I asked her if she needed a hug. And in the middle of the cafeteria, in the middle of the pandemic, we hugged. A stranger trying to help in the only way I knew how, offering comfort as only mothers can do. Human touch and kindness meeting in a time of need. She became a chapter in my story. Another validation of my Why.
Baptist Health Care in Florida. Strategic transition with large technical scope. Starting our work on a quiet Sunday morning when it is calm in the hospital. Our teams are beginning their work and I walk past a table with a woman and a man. They caught my eye and I stopped to speak. She wanted to talk, to express her worry and anxiety over her mother and her long time in the hospital; challenges with healing; nowhere to send her nearby for rehab. She wanted someone to listen. Someone to care. Someone to pray for her mother. So, I stopped. I listened. I prayed for Jan. I showed her I cared. And for 4 days while I was onsite, I stopped and spoke with her and her family each day. And the final day, I got to meet Jan. See her smile. See the hope coming back. This precious family became another chapter in my story. More of my Why.
Healthcare fuels my Why. Specifically, the patients and their families. In the technical world of EHR and network infrastructure, data analytics and information security protocols, digital solutions, and hardware, knowing I can impact the ability to care for patients is my Why. Providing tools for caregivers and front-line workers which empower them to quickly address clinical needs and the time to pause even briefly and be there for their patients. And when I am in a healthcare facility, I can pause and be the person to someone in need. I have hundreds of related stories I store up and reflect on when the days are long, and the solutions are challenging. My Why keeps me going.
Do you know your Why? If you have not found it, might I suggest looking back over your experience, even the mundane, and identify what drives you, what excites you, then name it and appreciate it. If you have found your Why, take time to nurture it, identify it, and appreciate those gems as they occur. While my Why may have changed through my career, as I have gained experience and a larger worldview, Healthcare is the culmination of technology and people which is precisely what drives me every day.
Those who know me know I love to tell my stories. I love the people around the technology and the memories made with those who have been in my journey. I have hundreds of stories I consider my treasures. They reinforce why I do what I love. They are my Why.
Thank you to all who are a part of my story. I eagerly anticipate the next chapters.
