Her Story
About Kaitlyn
Every day, working in mammography and women's health is so rewarding for me. I feel like helping people and making women feel comfortable is what drives me. Creating an environment for women having these not-so-comfortable tests like mammograms, making the environment for them very comfortable and safe, being compassionate and kind, and allowing them to have a comfortable experience doing this not-so-fun thing - I think that's super rewarding for me. I feel so lucky because that's my career. Mammography really is the epitome of women helping women, and it's so awesome to do that every day. I feel like my personality and my demeanor matched the mammography department so well. I'm naturally a very calming and compassionate person, so being in that department, it was like a perfect match. Now I just love helping people, doing the technical side too, getting great images and technical things like that, but also just making people feel comfortable and supporting women in general.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kaitlyn
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
For people trying to get into healthcare in general, you have to find the area in healthcare that speaks to you and that moves you. The great thing about healthcare is there's so many different sectors that you can go into. Even in just radiology, if you don't like mammography, you can go into CT, or if you don't like CT, you can go into MRI or ultrasound or other things. There's just so many options in healthcare. You have to be passionate about what you're doing every day, and you have to have something that really motivates you. And when you find that, it's gonna be a great career.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I would say the biggest challenge that I've seen is patient load and having to balance different schedules depending on what type of facility you work in, whether it's a big hospital or a small private imaging company. The operations side and leadership side of healthcare like to push the limits of patient load, and I feel like that puts a strain on any tech when you feel a little bit rushed with a patient. It's a challenge to balance giving the patient a good experience where they feel heard and being thorough, while also doing your job correctly. You don't want to rush or make a simple mistake. It's a hard equilibrium to maintain - how much time is enough. I want to provide the most accurate tests and everything technical that I'm doing, but I also want to make the patient feel like I'm hearing them and I'm not rushing them out the door. I want to build a good relationship with the patient so they'll come back too.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
In my personal life, my mom is the nicest person you will ever meet. She's so nice, she's so sweet, she's compassionate to everybody, and I've seen her do it my whole life. Having someone to look up to like that my whole life and transitioning that to my career too is so important, especially doing what I'm doing. You have to be compassionate. You have to be kind. You have to create that safe environment for people, especially because it's very scary. People come in and they're worried. Unfortunately, everybody knows someone that has had breast cancer or knows of someone. Every time people come in for this type of exam like a mammogram, they're thinking about their friend who just got diagnosed or they're scared because they have a new symptom. Everyone has anxiety about it, so it's so important to take that kindness and compassion and care into this work too.
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