Let’s say you’ve graduated from college with an A.A.S (Associated of Applied Science) in Biomedical Equipment technology, or Military BMET school, you have your first job as a BMET I, and you are learning more about what the world of HTM-Healthcare Technology Management has to offer. Your first couple of years, you saw this field through the eyes of your instructor, mentors, who were most likely laying out the foundation for you to be a successful BMET I. Some of you were inspired by the skills the senior technicians had, and could see yourself working on the devices down to the level they had acquired. This is why you entered the HTM world; you wanted to be a technician, you fancied yourself as the “go-to-guy” when an emergency came up, and there was no one else who could work on the medical device quite as good as you. How do you become that senior technician, how do you become that specialist? Time-in-grade may not be the answer. You may find yourself doing the same job over and over and over till you have nightmares of cleaning infusion pumps in your sleep. Like anything in life, you need to know where you are, where you want to be, and finally, you need a workable plan that will get you there. If you wait for this process to unfold itself for you, you may be waiting a long time.
Where are you now?
Asking students why they chose to enter this field, I get a lot of different answers. Some do it because of the patients. These are the “people-persons”. They enjoy helping the community and like the feeling they get when a person is better off because of something they did. Some students say they like it because “It’s Cool”. They enjoy the science behind these devices. These students are the “gadgets people” They like things, they like technology; most of them have the newest phones, ThinkPad’s, or tablets. They blog, tweet, and are up on the newest technology. Other students like the complexity of this interdisciplinary field. It has one foot in medicine and the other in engineering; I’d say another foot in management, but anatomically, we only have two feet, so I’ll say one hand in management. These people who like concepts
Which Road do I travel?