Influential Woman · Mammography
Patricia Ragsdale
Mammography Technologist, St. Francis Hospital in Memphis
Memphis, TN
Her Story
About Patricia
Patricia Ragsdale serves as a Mammography Technologist at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. In this role, she conducts breast biopsies during the day and performs localizations for patients prior to surgery. Ragsdale earned her associates degree from Rock Valley Community College in Rockford and maintains credentials as RT(R)(M). She previously worked at West Cancer Clinic before joining her current facility approximately one month ago. Ragsdale attributes her professional success to her anal retentiveness and particular attention to detail, ensuring biopsy trays and paperwork are prepared identically each time while diligently managing patient documentation and PATH reports. She values organization and honesty in both her work and personal life, and she advises young professionals to listen closely to doctors, especially in teaching facilities. Among her goals are pursuing travel positions to broaden her experience or moving into training roles for biopsy procedures.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Patricia
01What do you attribute your success to?
My anal retentiveness. I'm very particular about how I set things up, especially for a biopsy. My biopsy trays are set the exact same way every single time. My paperwork is done the exact same way every single time. Documenting for patients, getting the PATH reports back, making sure the doctors see them. Just being diligent and making sure that all of your stuff is done.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Just keep trying, whether you get it the first time or you don't get it the first time, maybe it's the tenth time, just keep trying, constantly seeing if you can elevate your education. Because you never know if the one little piece of information that you didn't get before clicks all of a sudden, it helps lead to something for another patient.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Talk to the doctors, because the doctors can give a lot of information. We mainly work with technologists, you know, peer-to-peer training, but listen to the doctors. If you go in for biopsies and procedures, especially if it's a teaching facility, because they are talking to their students constantly, and you never know when you may pick up something from them.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Scheduling. At my last facility, we over-scheduled patients far too much, and so we were the techs were running hard. We were running on E, but still having to run the whole day. And that was frustrating. It almost felt like the patients were numbers sometimes. And that's not what they are. They're people.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Organization is a huge thing for me, making sure that you're planned for what you're walking into. And being honest with the patient, being honest with your spouse, being honest with everybody, just this is what it is that we're gonna do, this is these are the few things that could happen, here's all the information that I can give you to make sure that you understand what it is that you're getting yourself into.
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.