Who am I?
Name: Carrie Livesay
Title: Medical Technologist, Pathology Lab
Affiliation: Kettering Medical Center
Education: Associate degree, Kettering College of Medical Arts
Bachelor’s degree, University of Cincinnati
Quote: “I spend a lot of time at the microscope — which is my favorite thing to do,” she said.

What’s2Like:
►Something new every day
►Decent pay
►Teamwork and camaraderie.
►Many job opportunities

What’s Not 2 Like:
►Long periods of standing or sitting
►Possibility of shift work.
►Some holiday and weekend work

It was almost a foregone conclusion that Carrie Livesay would be working in a scientific field. “I have always loved science,” she said. “Actually I had a high school teacher that introduced me to the laboratory — biology and anatomy and physiology. I just became very, very interested and I stayed interested,” Livesay said. “My parents were really good about fueling that, too — I had my own little microscope and things like that when I was a kid.”

Upon graduation from Springboro High School, Livesay enrolled at the Kettering College of Medical Arts and graduated with an associate degree that made her a Medical Laboratory Technician.

Working in that field and raising a family, she finally had time to go back to school and, in 2008, she finished her bachelor’s degree in Clinical Laboratory Science at the University of Cincinnati. The advanced education gave her the new designation as a Medical Technologist.

She hopes to further her education even more.“You can get a master’s degree in such things as laboratory administration or in such things as molecular technology — that’s what I’m interested in. You can go even farther and get a PhD in microbiology or hematology or anything of that nature,” she explained.

In the Pathology Laboratory at Kettering Medical Center, she looks at blood cells most of the day which begins at 6 a.m. and ends, usually, at 2:30 p.m. “We get a lot of work early in the morning because that is when the phlebotomists have drawn all the patients’ (blood) up on the floor for the day.

“We actually look at what is called the peripheral blood smear — you see the percentage of cell types that they have. There are normal stages — or what you are supposed to have — so we are looking for anything abnormal, “ she continued. “We do a lot of that.”

She said most days, the activity slacks off as the day goes on…but not always. “You never know. Sometimes you can get really busy throughout the day and, at other times, it might taper off a little bit in the afternoon.

“I spend a lot of time at a microscope — which is my favorite thing to do, so that works out,” she said with a smile.

Livesay also gets a chance to share her love of science. “I teach at Wright State, too,” she said. “I teach both the basic hematology and the advanced hematology courses.” She credits KMC with allowing her to be flexible in her scheduling so she can teach.

For those who might be interested in doing such work in a laboratory, Livesay says she believes MTs are in a great demand. “I think the median age of the medical technologists is in the 50s so we will have a lot of people retiring and not too many coming in and fill those shoes,” she said. “I think that is just not local but I think it is pretty much nationwide.”

Projections in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov) bear that out. The Occupational Outlook Handbook rates employment prospects for medical technologists and medical laboratory technicians as excellent and anticipates a growth of 14 percent over the next 10 years.

MTs can find employment in other venues as well. “I actually worked for an oncology office for a while,” she said “That was a good learning opportunity.” She listed community blood centers, physician offices and clinics as well as independent laboratories as places that employ medical technologists and medical laboratory technicians.

Livesay urges students to study all the math and sciences available. “We do some calculations so good science and math backgrounds (are necessary),” she said.

“I have no regrets (on choosing this career),” she said. “I learn something new every day and, if you are a person who likes to know how things work, this is a good field for you.

“This is a very rewarding career. I have put a lot into it but have gotten a lot out of it in return. I get a good sense of satisfaction at the end of the day.”

Who am I?
Name: Larry Beneke
Title: Program Director, Radiologic Sciences & Imaging
Affiliation: Kettering College of Medical Arts
Education: Bachelor’s Degree, Biology, Heidelberg College, Ohio
Associate Degree, Radiology, Fullerton Community College, California
Master’s Degree, Education, University of Dayton

Quote: “If someone has a liking for this kind of technology, medical imaging with data interpretation is really cool,” he said.

What’s2Like:
►Cutting edge technology.
►Helping patients.
►Decent pay.
►Wide variety of career paths.
►Good job opportunities (in many areas).

What’s Not 2 Like:
►Shift work is a possibility.
►Long periods of standing.
►As are all hospital workers, exposed to diseases.
►Trauma situations can be gut-wrenching.

If you’re the type who loves cutting-edge technology, likes caring for patients and are good in the math and science fields, Larry Beneke thinks you should consider a career in medical imaging.

“There are lots of career paths,” said the Professor and Program Director of Radiologic Sciences and Imaging at Kettering College of Medical Arts. “If they don’t like radiology (generally x-rays), they can do computed tomography (CT Scan) or (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) or mammography, management, education, research, dosimetry (figuring out how much radiation people are getting) — just lots of different career paths for medical imaging people.”

Beneke is a radiologic technologist and is a certified computed tomography technologist as well. He started out with a degree in biology from Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio. Then he joined the Navy where he was made a medical corpsman. He served time doing a lot of radiological imaging in Rota, Spain, where he was stationed on board a submarine tender. Then he was transferred to the Fleet Marine Force in California (the Navy supplies medics for the Marine Corps) where he began a family and eventually was discharged.

“My desire was to be a physical therapist after I got out. I was living in California and the wait list at Long Beach Community College was so long and I had a family so I said, ‘I am going to do something else.’” Beneke enrolled in Fullerton Community College and got an associate degree in radiology. “My biology degree helped me with understanding human structure and pathology and all that. And then the hospital corps experiences certainly helped me with patient care so I had a huge leg up on the other radiographers that were in my training program,” he added.

Afterwards he took his master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Dayton.

Although it is currently possible to get certified as a medical imaging technician without a degree, Beneke said he expects that to change in the near future. “There is a two-year educational experience — either as a hospital-based program or a college-based program,” he explained. “College-based programs are pre-eminent now and the bulk of x-ray programs are based on an associate level in college. (In) hospital-based, there would be a diploma or a certificate of completion but they would have the same parameters of the radiologic sciences education as the college-based person — they just wouldn’t have the general education or other didactic courses.

“That is changing a little bit because even the hospital-based courses are being required to have some college if not a degree,” he added.

Medical imaging technicians and technologists are responsible for producing the medical images ordered by physicians. The images they produce would then go to a radiologist — an MD or DO — for interpretation. They also work directly with a doctor when making images of procedures such as a fluoroscope where a patient drinks barium or any time that a patient is injected with a contrast material.

“We are not nurses but we certainly have patient-care skills,” Beneke said. “Our patient care is in small bites. X-Ray technologists may see a given patient for five or 10 minutes and then they may never see them again, where a nurse takes care of patients for a longer period of time.”

A medical imaging technician is entry level. “There are primary medical imaging technologies: radiologic technology; nuclear medicine technology; radiation therapy; and also sonography,” Beneke explained. “Those are the primary fields that an entry level person could get into.

“From that primary level, there is advanced training in computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, mammography, angiography — the heart cath kinds of examination — and some others like PET (Positron Emission Tomography) that is more like nuclear medicine. But you have to have an entry-level, primary modality certificate before you can get to the advanced roles.”

More and more the requirement is for certified techs in whatever test is being done. “In the past, people had just gotten on-the-job training in one of those areas. Now because of the regulations and insurance reimbursement, more and more requirements are being placed to become certified in the advanced modalities.

“That’s not 100 percent yet but the industry is going that way,” he concluded.

Beneke said hospitals are by far the biggest employers of medical imaging technologists but techs can also be found in physicians’ offices, in imaging clinics and in mobile imaging services.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Handbook (www.bls.gov) projects that the need for medical imaging techs is expected to grow faster than normal and that those with certification in more than one area are more employable. Beneke agrees in principle but says that the job market in the local area is somewhat stagnant right now because of the number of techs being turned out in Southwestern Ohio. “There are jobs out there and our graduates eventually find work. Five or 10 years ago, we couldn’t turn them out quickly enough.

“If students are willing to move out of the Dayton/Miami Valley area, their chances are good. If they have a second certificate, it certainly improves their chances of getting a job,” he said.

Who am I?
Name: Kara Waitzman
Title: Occupational Therapist
Affiliation: Miami Valley Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Education: Bachelor’s degree, Eastern Kentucky University
Multiple advanced certifications and ratings
Quote: “I decided I really liked it (in neonatal intensive care) so I worked my full-time job on Rehab and then came over here in the evenings and started sitting and learning,” she said.

What’s2Like:
►Every day is different
►Decent pay
►Success stories — seeing a baby born at 24 weeks leave the hospital looking good.
►Helping infants and families through a difficult time.
►As an OT, helping patients regain basic living skills that may have been lost.

What’s Not2Like:
►Can be emotionally draining at times.
►Seeing a baby (or patient) leave the hospital when you know in your heart the family doesn’t have the resources to continue care.
►Many OTs have to work weekends or shift work.
►Sometimes not enough hours in the day.

In her junior year and while a cheerleader at Bethel High School, Kara Waitzman broke her back. The injury was compounded the next year when she was involved in an automobile accident and broke her jaw and her back for the second time.

“Back then they didn’t do surgery (for a broken back) so I lay (flat) for 54 days in the hospital,” she recalled. “Some therapists came in on my 53rd day and said, ‘tomorrow you are going to get up. They are going to let you out of bed so you need to do these exercises.’”

That was her introduction to therapy. “I didn’t like what she did but I liked the idea of what she did — she was a physical therapist,” Waitzman continued. “So I kind of looked into it and realized that occupational therapy was much more holistic and whole-body. I always knew I wanted to work with people.”

Waitzman enrolled at Eastern Kentucky University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy.

She began work in the rehabilitation unit at Miami Valley Hospital immediately after graduation. She was assigned as a backup therapist to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

“They called it ‘ghost therapy’ because (therapists) came in so infrequently. I really liked it over here and I would work my full-time job in Rehab and then come over here in the evenings, sitting and learning.”

Eventually she convinced the hospital that she should be a full-time person in the NICU. She now is at the recently-opened, 60-bed NICU in the Berry Women’s Health Pavilion at MVH and works with mostly premature babies. “As an Occupational Therapist, I evaluate and treat the babies. Things I might evaluate might be their overall development — in other words, how they respond to noise, light, touch, smell, taste — those kinds of things. I do an overall assessment of those things and provide treatment that will help their body and their brain adapt to the environment and help their brain grow and develop normally,” she explained. She added that even full-term babies who are in the NICU can benefit from her services. “Lots and lots of brain development is happening in those first few months.”

Waitzman said there is another level to her field. “A Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant — those are two-year degrees,” she said. “ The biggest difference is that an Occupational Therapist can evaluate or assess patients and come up with a treatment plan. COTAs carry out that plan.” She added that, because it is constant evaluation and assessment, COTAs could not work in an NICU.

To become an Occupational Therapist, a master’s degree is necessary under current standards. When Waitzman graduated from EKU, a bachelor’s degree was all that was required. She says she has no current plans to pursue a master’s and opts to get as many certifications as she can that are related to her neonatal specialty. She listed some of the certifications — some of which take a year or more to get — which include Neonatal Infant Development Care Assessment Program, Certified Infant Massage Instructor, Neuro-Development Training, certification in the Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence. “And I am certified as an Infant Development Instructor. So while I did not pursue a collegiate degree past my bachelor’s, I just keep continuing to specialize more and more into neonatal care.”

She estimated that OTs with her list of certifications number less than five in the country. She also received certification in 2009 in Advanced Competencies Neonatal Nurse — designed for master’s-prepared nurses. “There are only maybe 20 in the country that have passed that certification,” she said.

With her credentials, she speaks often at conferences across the country. Besides working at MVH, she works for a national consulting firm and runs her own business. When at MVH, she spends a great deal of time educating nurses, physicians, therapists and parents in proper care of the infant. She also handles a case load that can sometimes reach as high as 30 infants.

She designs an individual program for each infant and treatment can take many forms. She listed swaddle baths, manipulation of muscles and nerves and “lots of massage” as being among the techniques that she uses. She says every baby and, consequently, every day is different — a factor that she loves about her job.

“As an Occupational Therapist, you can help people in so many different walks of life and with so many activities,” Waitzman said.”Whether that activity is dressing or driving or eating or whatever. You learn how to break an activity down into a hundred pieces so you can learn what a person can or can’t do. If they can’t do pieces three through 26, then you break it down to work on those skills.

“I have a great job — I love my job.”

Who am I?
Name: Chris Capparelli
Title: Nuclear Medicine Technologist, Chief of Nuclear Medicine
Affiliation: Upper Valley Medical Center
Education: Bachelor’s degree, University of Findlay.
Quote: “It’s a very rewarding field and you get to help a lot of people and the technology is wonderful,” he said.

What’s2Like:
►Challenging work
►Cutting-edge technology
►Helping people
►No two days are alike

What’s Not 2 Like:
►Being on-call at times.
►Shift or weekend work a possibility in larger hospitals
►Can be emotionally draining when dealing with, for example, a child with cancer.
►Job competition is currently stiff.

For some the words ‘nuclear’ or ‘radioactivity’ conjure up images of total destruction via super bombs, et cetera. Therefore, being told to appear at the nuclear medicine department brings on a case of apprehension in some patients.

“Yes, you get that a lot. It’s the fear of the unknown,” said Chris Capparelli, Chief of Nuclear Medicine at the Upper Valley Medical Center in Miami County. “People who don’t know what’s going to happen when they walk in the door so a lot of them are very, very nervous.

“But once you explain the procedure and tell them it’s not going to be harmful to them, their apprehension usually goes away very quickly,” he explained.

Radioactivity is a part of nuclear medicine but amounts involved are minute.

“Nuclear medicine is a branch of radiology,” Capparelli explained. “We do a lot of functions studies. We use a very small amount of radiation — which is not harmful to the patient. Either (we) inject it or they swallow a pill or they breathe it in. We have specialty cameras that can pick up that radiation that we give them and we can help the doctors diagnose certain diseases.”

The type of material for the patient varies according to what is to be studied. “There are two parts to each drug used,” the Vandalia-Butler HS graduate explained. “There is the non-radioactive part and the radioactive part. What the radiation is mixed with depends on where it is to go in the body. You may mix it with one part that goes to the heart while you might mix the same (radioactive material) with something that goes to the gall bladder on another patient. It all depends on what you mix it with.

“We can do function tests on the heart, liver, spleen, gall bladder and thyroid. There are tests that we can do to find internal bleeding. We can find blood clots in the lungs or tell you how fast or slowly you digest your foods and things like that,” he continued.

Since exposure to radiation is cumulative, workers in a nuclear medicine department must wear dosimeters to measure the amount of radiation they have received. “Not only the body but the hands as well,” Capparelli said showing the ring-type dosimeter they wear in addition to the one on their belts. When preparing materials, nuclear medicine technologists use a lead-lined shield over the materials.

The day starts early. “The first thing we do in the morning, we have to do a lot of testing on our equipment so we spend about a half-hour a day doing quality control on the equipment to make sure it is working properly before we use it on a patient,” he said.

“Then you tend to see your first patient right around 6:45 or 7 a.m. Those are typically heart patients so you tend to get those done early. We start our IVs and then go from there.” He noted that nuclear med techs do start their own IVs.

“Typically we are busy all morning and then it starts to slack off a little in the afternoon.” He estimated that the department sees 15 to 20 patients a day at Upper Valley. Tests last from one hour to three or four hours each.

Capparelli has a bachelor’s degree in nuclear medicine from the University of Findlay. He said it is possible to work in nuclear medicine with a one-year certificate or with an associate degree. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Handbook (www.bls.gov) notes that those who receive certificates, etc., usually already have a certificate or degree as a radiologic technician.

Competition for jobs is currently stiff. “When I was in school, my class (2001) graduated seven people. Now (schools graduate) 40 to 60 every eight months,” he explained. “As of a year or two ago, the demand has decreased dramatically. I think less people are retiring now because of economic issues so there are not as many people leaving as are coming in. Generally it peaks every five years — (demand) goes up and down.”

He said that Findlay’s four-year program consists of three years of prerequisites and then four months of classes devoted solely to nuclear medicine. The aspiring technologist then spends eight months getting clinical experience in the field.

“It’s a very rewarding field and you get to help a lot of people,” he said. “The technology is wonderful — you get to use a lot of computers and the software is always updating. So, if you are into computers and medicine, this is definitely a career you should probably look into. It is very fascinating,” he said.

Capparelli suggests taking as many science and math courses as possible and do a job shadow. For Upper Valley, he suggested contacting the Volunteer Office to set up shadowing.

But while studying may be a necessity, make sure you take “sanity” breaks.

Let me explain: if all you do 24/7 is study, without any breaks, your retention of the information you are trying to remember drops steadily. That’s why I have found it quite useful to take a short 3-4 minute break every 30-60 minutes (depending on what you are comfortable with). Those short breaks will let your brain relax, reset, and refresh (my 3 R’s). By following this technique, I have been able to study more effectively. When you are in a demanding medical program/degree, as I am, making your time more effective/useful is a WIN WIN situation.

Just a thought…

Danny

Who am I?
Name: Angi ‘Goose’ Gooslin
Title: RN/EMT-P, Flight Nurse
Affiliation: Miami Valley Hospital CareFlight
Education: Bachelor’s degree, Morehead State University
Paramedic certification, Clark State Community College
Multiple certifications
Quote: “(Flight Nurse) is the best job I have had yet and I have loved every area I have been in so far. I loved critical care and coronary care and it has made me the nurse I am today. I have loved it,” she said.

What’s2Like:
►Challenging work
►Autonomy in the field — no one to call.
►Helping patients who are in maybe the worst times of their lives.
►Extra pay — a one-step increase
►Flight Nurses are generally highly respected.

What’s Not 2 Like:
►Shift work
►Fly in all temperatures
►Patient outcomes can sometimes be tragic
►Flight Nurse selection requires successful completion of a rigorous test/interviews.

When she was studying for her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree at Morehead State University, Angi Gooslin was sure that she would have to go somewhere other than the local area to find exciting work.

“I guess when you grow up here, you don’t really think of the things you have (in the area) that are unique or special or different,” the Tippecanoe High School grad said. “So I never looked at this hospital as (in my mind) they couldn’t possibly have anything I would want to do here — I would have to go somewhere else to do something really exciting.”

That changed between her junior and senior years.

“Miami Valley (Hospital) had an extern program where they would take nursing students in a bachelor’s program and you would work in the hospital for a summer,” she said. “When I was here, I was exposed to CareFlight and I thought, ‘Oh! This is what I want to do!’”

After graduation, Gooslin set herself a goal of becoming a Flight Nurse. “I said that, ‘in 10 years, I should be pretty well-educated to take care of anybody and I will apply in 10 years’ and that is what I did.”

Gooslin said that the application process was tough — unlike when she first became a nurse. “I came in during a nursing shortage — (hospitals) were paying student loans back and they were paying hiring bonuses — all you had to do was be a nurse and you could get a job,” she recalled.

“This was one of the most intense application processes I have ever been through,” she said. “I thought I was pretty qualified.” Gooslin worked in critical care and emergency departments for the 10 years previous earning the Critical Care Nurse certification.

She applied three times before being selected.

“It was a three-day process they run you through. They make you go through a big peer interview with the director and some of the staff nurses and medics and the managers. You meet with the Medical Director and he runs you through a scenario on a patient simulator to assess your baseline knowledge of critical care and emergency response and things like that and how you are going to take it. Then you take a test that never know the results of — on general knowledge and it covers pediatrics, adults, obstetrics, cardiac, trauma — you name it.” Applicants then spend a month waiting to see if selected.

After selection, she was sent to Clark State Community College to take a one-semester course that also gave her the title of Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic — a requirement for Flight Nurses.

CareFlight has a helicopter based at Miami Valley Hospital as well as one based in Urbana and another in Warren County. When the aircraft are grounded by weather — fog, ice or storms, for example — there are three Mobile Intensive Care Units that are used to provide service. “It’s the highest level of ground transport,” she said. “When you see an ambulance it might have two Basic-EMTs in it. The MICU carries a Flight Nurse and a Critical Care Paramedic.

“Transport time is a little longer and it is bumpy but you have the same care coming back (as in the helicopter).” She said that the MICU carries the same equipment and supplies as the helicopters. Both helicopter and MICU can handle two patients. Paramedics do not fly and the aircraft carries two Flight Nurses in addition to the pilot.

Gooslin, who, naturally, has been tagged with the nickname of ‘Goose,’ said that the nurses also act as co-pilots on the helicopters. “One of us sits up front and we are trained by (the pilots) on what we can touch and what we can’t and how to get in and get out so we don’t kick things. We know how to read some of the gauges and stuff like that,” she related. “We are another set of eyes for the left-hand side of the aircraft.”

Pilots have no medical training and their sole job is safe conveyance of the team and patient. “Our pilots are just experts in reading the weather and they are trained in that. They accept or decline each mission (based on weather).

“The pilot never knows what we are going for,” she continued. “They are not supposed to be told so their decisions are never influenced (by the call). They have to take that emotional piece out of it.”

Gooslin became a nurse educator a year ago and spends a great deal of time in her office between calls working on that. But when the call comes in, the communications center selects which unit is the best for the call and drops radio tones. “We wear radios here in the hospital and they will drop tones — there are aircraft tones and mobile unit tones — and we are trained like Pavlov’s dogs to respond to that. You go from zero to 60 right now.” If the crew is in the CareFlight unit on the seventh floor of MVH, she says that can be lifting off within five minutes after the alert. The unit can have as many as five to seven calls in an area from Cincinnati to St. Marys and from Richmond, Ind., to Columbus.

She said the difference between a Flight Nurse and a floor nurse is evident when they arrive on a scene. “It’s the autonomy,” she said. “We’ve been trained to do patient assessments, anticipate problems, treat them, evaluate problems and re-assess them.

“When you come in here, there is that expectation. You don’t have someone to call so you have to be confident in your abilities to assess accurately, treat and re-evaluate,” she said.

CareFlight has an elevator next to the flight deck which enables them to deliver the patient to the ER or surgery or whichever unit is needed. “Then we actually follow all of them here until they go home,” she said, adding that the flight personnel can often fill in gaps of the memory of the victim and their families.

Sometimes CareFlight will go on a mission that ends tragically. “We do the best that we can and sometimes it turns out the best and sometimes it doesn’t — those I will never forget,” she said. “You have to be prepared for the child that gets run over in a driveway. You remember what you see. So you wipe your tears and go on to the next mission because maybe the next person just got hit by a train. You can’t be crying over the one that you couldn’t help — you have to give 100 percent to the next one.” Although the crew is trained in stress management, they are allowed to call a ‘timeout’ if they are not emotionally ready.

Sometimes patients come back and thank them. Gooslin recalled a severe motorcycle accident in Troy and, five years later, the girl showed up at the 25th anniversary of CareFlight to thank her again.

Although weather is a factor in flying, temperature is not. “You have to be flexible. That means you have to go out when it is 110 degrees in a black suit from head to toe with a 2-1/2 pound helmet on your head. It messes your hair up and your makeup sweats off. Or you are at zero (degrees) and when the blades turn, the IV tubing will freeze. If you are not a flexible person and can’t handle change too well, this is not the job for you.”

Who am I?
Name: Leatha Ross
Titles: Family Nurse Practitioner
Director, Student Health Services
Affiliation: Wright State University
Education: B.S., Microbiology, University of Maryland
B.S., Nursing, Wright State University
M.S. Nursing Education, Wright State University
M.S. Family Nurse Practitioner, Wright State University

Quote: “(The Family Nurse Practitioner Exam) is a national certification exam. So while I might practice her in Ohio, I know my certificate would go anywhere in the country. My certificate to prescribe would vary from state to state,” she said.

What’s2Like:
►Patient-Nurse interaction
►Being able to assess patients
►Teaching
►Being able to write prescriptions

What’s Not 2 Like:
►Nurse practitioners sometimes cannot prescribe certain medications.
►Some testing facilities won’t accept a nurse practitioner’s signature.
►Insurance companies (especially Medicare) won’t reimburse NPs equally with physicians.

For Leatha Ross, it all started with her love of science. When she graduated from high school in her native Maryland, she enrolled at the University of Maryland and graduated with a degree in microbiology.

Nursing was not on her horizon.

“To be honest, I was fighting against it for a long time,” she said with a laugh. Working with a pair of OB/Gyn specialists, she spent a lot of time in the exam room. “I learned to do vital signs. I was doing that and talking to the patients and in the room with the physician and always asking questions. He made the comment one day, ‘you should go to nursing school.’

“After I finished the degree in microbiology, I learned something about myself — that I really did not enjoy being away from people. In a lab you were under a hood a lot of times and you didn’t have a lot of contact. I found that I really did enjoy talking to patients and being around them and figuring out what was going on and helping them through different aspects,” she explained.

Ross enrolled at Wright State University and graduated with a second bachelor’s degree — a B.S. in Nursing — and became a Registered Nurse.

She confessed to a second love — teaching. So she worked and got a master’s degree from WSU with a concentration in nursing education.

She then decided to become an Advanced Practice Nurse — in the field of Family Nurse Practitioner. “I completed the program in 14 to 16 months (at Wright State) because I already had a master’s,” she said.

AP Nurses can choose to follow such disciplines as Nurse Anesthetist, Nurse Midwife or Nurse Practitioner. “You can have Acute Care Nurse Practitioners, Pediatrics. Actually there is now also a geriatric AP Nurse,” Ross said. She chose to become a Family Nurse Practitioner.

She is currently Director of Student Health Services at the university.

Ross pointed out that an FNP can see patients across all age levels and can work with a pediatrician, in internal medicine or even in a hospital.

Once a nurse completes the curriculum, he/she must sit for a national certification exam. With that in hand, the new AP nurse then applies to get a certificate to write prescriptions. “Once you are approved to begin your certificate to prescribe, you work 1,500 additional hours in a clinical setting. You write prescriptions — the first 500 hours under the supervision of your physician. After the first 500, you write them independent of the physician and then the physician or the nurse practitioner with whom you are working signs off.”

Nurse practitioners can set up an independent practice. “If they have the money,” she said with a smile. “Currently my colleague has a practice in Springfield and she has two other nurse practitioners. They provide primary care which entails diagnosing and treating common health problems.

“When you are in practice by yourself, there is a scope of practice and you know what you are allowed to do — in other words, managing common chronic problems such as diabetes, hypertension, doing physicals, giving annual Pap Smears to females and taking care of people that have maybe…bronchitis, sinus infections, headiaches — just the common things,” she explained. The practice must also have a collaborating physician available if something is beyond the scope of the AP Nurse’s practice.

Ross pointed out that the national certification makes her eligible to work anywhere in the United States although her prescriptive powers may vary from state to state.

“While as a Family Nurse Practitioner (career) can be rewarding and kind of gives you a little sense of accomplishment, it is also a big responsibility being sure that you accurately treat your patients and give correct medication dosages and so forth.

“It is so important to keep up,” she said referring to the additional continuing education requirements in addition to those of a Registered Nurse.

Wright State’s School of Nursing requires a Registered Nurse to have at least two years of practice before entering the Advance Practice program.

Ross also noted that the school is about to graduate its first Doctor of Nursing Practice.

Who am I?
Name: Julie Sawyer
Title: Certified Genetic Counselor
Affiliation: Miami Valley Hospital South
Education: Bachelor’s degree, Biochemistry, The Ohio State University
Master’s degree, Medical Genetics, University of Cincinnati
Quote: “I happened to be at a health fair where there was a genetic counselor,” she said. “I really hadn’t heard of that field before so I read about it and talked to her. I thought this would be a good combination of what I liked and what I wanted. I think it was a very good choice.”

What’s2Like:
►Helping families by making science meaningful to them.
►Sharing information about the mystery world of the cell and its effects on the body.
►Usually day shift work in a controlled environment.
►Decent pay

What’s Not 2 Like:
►Having to give someone bad news.
►Possible hassles with insurance companies
►Being a newer discipline, not as many job openings exist yet.

No sci-fi here. Julie Sawyer, a certified genetic counselor, doesn’t manipulate genes to create monsters nor is she able to pull out a scanner and read your DNA.

“Basically genetic counseling is an education process,” she said. Sawyer works at the Miami Valley Hospital South campus in Centerville. Breast cancer is one topic that she covers frequently.

“(Genetic counseling) is designed to translate a lot of the basic science and medical information specifically related to genetics and inheritance to people to whom it’s relevant,” she explained. “We help to explain things that are often found in ultrasounds, help (patients) understand some of the screening test results.

“Often if there is a family history of a genetic disease, we can calculate the odds that (the disease) will occur in a baby.”

She added that most genetic counselors have spent some time in a pre-natal — usually a high-risk pre-natal center — where they help interpret test results and review family history to look for a genetic risk. “For instance, if there is a family history of cystic fibrosis or sickle-cell (anemia) or even if somebody had a particular ethnic background like African or Jewish — there can be certain conditions that can be more prevalent (to those ethnicities) and we can discuss those conditions and the testing options to screen for those,” she said.

Whereas it was more common to find genetic counselors in pre-natal and pediatric settings — such as working in children’s hospitals — counselors have been expanding into other areas and venues.

“Probably in the last 10 to 15 years, genetic counselors have been branching out into other areas of genetics such as cancer. (They are) working in laboratories helping design testing panels and interpreting test results and even in things like marketing and PR from commercial testing laboratories and things like that,” Sawyer said.

“My work here is working with women who have an increased risk for — primarily — breast and ovarian cancer,” Sawyer explained. “There are a couple of genes that were discovered in the mid-1990s called BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 that are related to breast cancer risk.

“So those genes, which we all have, can be inherited in some families in a damaged form and they are not providing the health benefits that they should,” she continued. “In those situations, women (and men) are at increased risk for breast cancer.”

To study a patient’s family history, genetic counselors usually construct a family tree. “Usually at least three generations — sometimes four or more,” Sawyer said. “(We draw) in all the closest relatives and make a little graph with squares and circles to look at their family to see who has what health problem. We look for patterns. We look to see if it is something that seems to be passed on from parent to child or is it hit-and-miss here and there? Does it seem to be coming from both sides of the family?

“That can help us get a sense of whether or not something is genetic and how it might be inherited,” she said.

The counseling part of her title then comes to the forefront.

“Patient care usually involves a pretty long discussion where we review the person’s background information. After all that is done, we talk about — in cancer counseling — what cancer really is and the relationship between cancer and genes and (we talk about) the difference between sporadic cancer (which is always genetic) and inherited cancer risks (which are actually fairly uncommon,)” Sawyer explained. “Cancer always involves our cells and our genes but is usually something that happens over time in a person’s body — in their own cells — and not what they inherited from their family.”

Inheritance, however, is the setting that makes some families more susceptible to develop cancer than others. “That is what we test for — that inherited susceptibility.”

She added that, when a person is determined to be at higher risk, then the patient may decide to have more frequent diagnostic procedures. “More frequent mammograms, MRIs and things like that, particularly for breast cancer risks.

“I think this is where the value of genetic counseling is — helping people decide whether or not that testing is right for them. They have a lot to think about. It is not just a test from themselves, it is a test that could imply information about their parents, their brothers and sisters and their children,” she continued.

“It is not a simple decision.” She added that at-risk patients might want to have surgery to prevent the cancer from forming. There might also be questions about health and/or life insurance. She added that genetic testing is usually very costly.

Sawyer said that she enjoys meeting the families — not just the patient but often other members of the family as well. Their discussions are unlike being in a physician’s office where you are told something in a few minutes with the doctor and are expected to remember all of it when you get home.

Her job is to make sure the process is understood so that it can be remembered.

Sawyer, a native of Marysville, got her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from The Ohio State University. She then worked for a couple of years and went to the University of Cincinnati where she received her master’s degree in medical genetics.

Name: Kay Campbell

Place of work: Kettering Medical Center

Job Title: RN (BSN, BC)

Hours worked: 7am - 7pm, 36 hrs p/week

How many yrs/months in profession: 10 years

Where you received your education: Sinclair Community College and Indiana Wesleyan University

What degree did you earn: Associate to BS in Nursing

How many yrs/months for your education: 5 years

A Typical Day: I arrive to work and receive my assignment. I get report from night shift concerning my patient status and needs. I then review medications for the day, review labs and start assessing and providing care to my patients. It is necessary in my profession to be flexible due to patient needs and changing needs of the unit.

What was your inspiration: I had cared for my father for 6 years during an illness and my mother encouraged me to be a nurse considering my recent experience.

Best Advice you ever received: Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem. When you encounter a problem, you must help to find a solution and institute a plan.

What would you tell someone interested in going into health care: Don’t enter nursing based on money. Do it because you care about people and want to make a change.

Name: Sarah Conover

Place of work: UVMC

Job Title: Physical Therapist

Hours worked: 20 hrs a week

How many yrs/months in profession: 22 1/2 years

Where you received your education: University of Evansville & University of Indianapolis

What degree did you earn: BS in PT and MHS

How many yrs/months for your education: 4 years + 2

A Typical Day: Desk work & getting the day’s schedule set, see patients & write notes throughout the day, taking a break for lunch. Finishing up with paperwork at the end of the day and phone calls.

What was your inspiration: Interest in how the human body works & wanting to impact the quality of life for individuals.

Best Advice you ever received: Listen to your patients.

What would you tell someone interested in going into health care: In addition to having an interest in people, it’s critical to be a strong student in math and sciences.

One interesting anecdote about your career (optional): Every day I learn something new.