Editor’s Note
Page 3
TMS
Editor’s Note’s
Which Road Do I Travel?
By Lub and Dub
(for those of you who listen to the ‘car guys’, will understand this reference)
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, are problem solvers. They love to study how things
work together, and have a knack for strategic thinking. Then there are the information people. These
people love information. They thrive on raw data, not new concepts or ideas. They are well organized, they are the planners. Students come in the door not really being any one of these things, but a
blend of at least two. They all have different reasons for coming into this field. They will, if allowed,
become successful and contribute back to this profession ―if and only if‖ (geometric phrase) they are
given the opportunities to make the right choices. No one student, comes in with the same reason,
no-one student is driven by the same motivation. That is o.k. What is important is understand what
primarily drives you. That will not only determine where you may be successful, but also content
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