Ashley Claxton

I attribute my success to hard work, dedication, and focus. Definitely God. God has definitely opened up doors for me that probably would not have been there just on my own strength. But outside of God, integrity, hard work, and work ethics have been crucial. Networking and being able to be personable with people has definitely created some avenues for me as well. And just never being afraid to speak up, never being afraid to be in a quiet room and probably be the only one that starts talking. Just creating my own path, because you have to stand out or you'll blend in. And I definitely would say that contributed a lot.

The best career advice I ever received was to change my perspective and re-evaluate why I'm still where I am. I was getting extremely frustrated with not moving and feeling very stagnant, and someone told me I needed to take my focus off of where I was trying to go and continue to get the lessons, because there are things that need to fall into alignment and I just need to be patient. They told me to start focusing on things that I can develop. So I started reading leadership books and focusing on what it meant to be a leader, how to kind of groom myself into that. And as I started focusing on that and grooming myself, my promotions started coming. Sometimes it's not about where you feel like you need to be. Sometimes you just have to pause and see how you can continue to grow where you are, so that when doors do open, you might get through two of them at the same time. The lesson there was grow where you are.

The best advice that I would give is don't forget why you started this. You have to always operate from a heart place, because the logistics of this type of career path can make you quit. But if you remember why you're doing it, that's what's gonna keep you going. And you have to always do things with compassion. Do things from a heart place, because that's what really, that's really what people need. A lot of the different personalities and maybe the negative emotions that come from patient care are never directed towards you personally. Ever. They're navigating something too, and you have to have empathy and compassion, so just keep pushing. Keep pushing, and when it gets hard, keep pushing even after that, because we need people who really, in their heart, want to be in the healthcare industry. Over time, it becomes something that is a go-to for people who just want to make money. And that doesn't last long, because sometimes the money's not enough, and you still have to keep performing from a heart place. And so just always keep ourselves in alignment.

Education is a huge barrier. It's absolutely frustrating. I recently stepped into an interim supervisor role when my supervisor was terminated, and when they hire someone else on, I'm the one who trains that person. I have all these ideas, but you're never heard. You can never stomp on the ground hard enough for someone to say, let me look at her. I want to be useful and not abused, and right now I just feel abused for my knowledge. I have a lot of different perspectives and ideas, and then someone else gets to benefit off of that. You're stomping and kicking and screaming, like hey, I'm here, I can do this, I can do that position, I'm willing to do it. But because you may not have the credentials, or for whatever reason, I don't know if it's because I'm a woman, I don't know, but it's become a huge challenge. Even with me finishing school in July, I've already started looking for things, and it's like you feel like you're competing with a million people. If I could just have a conversation with the one person that's needed, I can get where I need to go. But it's just like getting out of that, and that's super frustrating. That's a really big challenge, probably the biggest I would say.

I value truth. I stand on truth. There's right and there's wrong. There's no gray area to that. As you continue to climb the hierarchy, you will experience things that are not ethical sometimes, that are not morally right. And so someone has to stand up and say, this is not right. Because at the end of the day, we deal with healthcare and we deal with patients. I've also learned, as you climb higher up, it's more about the fiscal year and how much money we made and less about patient care. And so that's not right. So you have to constantly be the one that stands on truth and your morals and what you believe in, and let that continue to guide you.