True leadership: ‘I wasn’t held back at all’

Dazhane is ambitious and knows what she wants from her career, but having someone on her side gave her the edge she needed.

Coming out of school, she was nervous to start her clinicals at AHN Saint Vincent Hospital.

“It’s easy for someone at school to say what happens clinically, but they’re not living it every single day,” Dazhane said.

So, she asked to be put in touch with the manager of the Radiology Team at Saint Vincent to talk about what the experience would be like.

She was quickly able to meet with the radiology manager, but little did she know the impact the connection with that manager would make on her early career.

“I was able to come in and just meet with the manager even though I wasn’t even her employee yet,” Dazhane said. “It’s almost like she was backing me as a student.”

Getting this support helped assure Dazhane of her decision to do clinicals at Saint Vincent.

“This is somebody who’s listening to me even though I have no true place here yet,” Dazhane said. “I’m just here learning, and she was still willing to listen to my concerns.”

Throughout her clinicals and schooling Dazhane’s radiology manager gave her several opportunities to talk with her about her path and concerns.

“Even if this wasn’t going to be the best fit for me, she was willing to get me to the right people,” Dazhane said. “She was willing to look other places. It was nice to have her be like: ‘No, you have options.’”

When the time came to make a decision on where she would continue her career after graduation, she knew she wanted to stay.

“It was easy to be able to say: ‘Yes, I want to stay with Saint Vincent,’” Dazhane said. “It just ended up working out better that I stayed here. I already had a foot in the door, and I had been in conversation with my manager for so long.”

After graduation, Dazhane was able to start right away and be independent almost immediately in her radiology technologist role, but she knew she wanted to continue to learn and grow in her role and explore other modalities.

“I knew I wasn’t going to be an X-ray tech forever,” said Dazhane. “I wanted to know if the other modalities were an option for me. Would I be able to go to CT or MRI and keep learning? And my manager said ‘Yeah, I don’t see how that would ever be a problem.’”

After Dazhane was comfortable enough with X-ray, with her manager’s support and guidance, she started to explore CT and MRI.

“She ended up setting up the days for me to shadow, and I went over and I picked everybody’s brains for the day,” Dazhane said. Ultimately, Dazhane decided to pursue CT. Her radiology manager helped her set up some time directly with the CT manager to work out how she could move into the role.

“I wasn’t held back at all,” Dazhane said.

Dazhane’s radiology manager encouraged her to grow in her career even if that meant moving to another department.

“I don’t like to feel like you can never leave, like you can never move up,” Dazhane said. “Here, they’re encouraging you to go and learn new things and try.”