By K. Richard Douglas
One thing that has always made the U.S. unique is the fact that it has been a melting pot of races, ethnic groups, religions and political affiliations.
Look in nearly every city in every state and you will find people of Irish, African, Scottish, Polish, Mexican, Norwegian, Italian, Brazilian, English and/or German heritage. You will find Catholics, Muslims, Protestants, Baptists and Hindus. You will encounter liberals and conservatives, libertarians and independents.
There will be Millennials, Baby-boomers, Gen-Z’ers and those from Generation Alpha and even some members of the Silent Generation. The demographics represent a who’s-who of every sub-population that may be found anywhere in the world.
This stratification isn’t only true in the U.S. but in many free, democratic countries. It also includes a mix of people by wealth; including those who are low-income, middle-class and those who are prosperous.
The goal of most employers is to have a workforce that represents the local community. Achieving this goal is often determined by the profession and the candidates it attracts. Construction workers are more often men and teachers are more often women.
Many of “traditionally male” jobs have seen the lines blurred in recent years as more women enter those professions.
What attracts people to the biomed profession? It is most often an acumen for working with their hands and with tools. There is also an interest and basic knowledge in electronics that, after training, becomes advanced knowledge. These variables tend to attract candidates to the profession, and in the past, this was most often males. Today, it includes women who share these interests as well.
“Much like recruitment and retention, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) also relies on a great culture which starts with a robust mission/vision. People want a great environment to work in and having clear direction (also known as the ‘why’) and a leader who is willing to work with staff on flexibility, growth and development,” says Samantha Jacques, Ph.D., FACHE, vice president of McLaren Clinical Engineering Services (MCES) at McLaren Health in Grand Blanc, Michigan
A Break Down of the Field
A look back at the people featured in TechNation’s “Professional of the Month” feature provides a glimpse into the composition of the healthcare technology management (HTM) profession. It is an eclectic, diverse group of professionals who have been standouts among their peers.
The candidates for the professional feature come from nominations. Those nominations can originate from biomed managers, third-party service providers, other biomeds or colleagues or other persons within the health care environment.
Those represented in the past five years of professional profiles don’t entirely align with the conclusions the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) found in its 2021 survey of 7,000 HTM professional.
In the AAMI survey, the authors cited findings that “8.5 percent were black or African American, 7.7 percent were Hispanic/Latinx, and just over 10 percent identified as female.” The survey included managers and found that “14% identified as female.”
A review of the TechNation “professionals” from the past five years paints a slightly different picture of the composition of the HTM community. There were 60 professionals spotlighted during 2018 through 2022. Of the 60, 46 were male and 14 were female.
Forty-two were white, six were Hispanic and three were African-American. Two of the professionals were Arab, one was Indian, two were Pakistani and three were Asian. Nominate a Professional of the Month at 1technation.com/nominations.
The composition of a biomed department should be representative of the local community. The only limitation on this goal is the interests of those who choose to join the profession. Anyone who enjoys working with their hands, has an acumen for working with tools, and has an interest and training in electronics is a potential candidate for the HTM profession. This could be almost anybody and that fact may expand the pool of candidates as more people learn of the profession.
So, while the goal may be to have a biomed department representing the local community, the available candidates come from those who have decided to enter the field. There are no training programs that bar any particular candidate and the field needs new, well-trained technicians to replace retiring biomeds.
Anyone with the required skill set is welcomed. Anyone interested in making the HTM profession a career is needed to fill vacant positions that will arise in the months and years ahead. If a clarion call can go out to the broadest cross-section of candidates, that will ensure that those vacancies are most likely to be filled.
Men, women, those from minority communities and people from every background should be made aware of the existence of the HTM profession and the need for new recruits.
In this same issue, the Department of the Month highlighted is the South Texas Health Systems HTM department. The department is about 90 percent Hispanic which mirrors the surrounding Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas, which has a Hispanic population of over 91 percent. The department reflects the surrounding community. Nominate a Department of the Month at 1technation.com/nominations and scroll down the page.
The AAMI survey found that nearly half of all respondents to its survey were 50 or older, so the continued exodus of retiring biomeds is inevitable.
The military has always been a good source of well-trained biomeds. Because the U.S. military is so diverse, there is a good chance that any new recruit who is made aware of the biomed profession might choose it as their Military Occupation Specialty (MOS). In the Army, for instance, there were approximately 190 MOS to choose from in 2019.
Many will choose an MOS that they have an existing interest in, but others may find biomed if a recruiter suggests the field, as has been the case with many current biomeds. Those entering the Army, with an existing interest in electronics or a medical profession, may choose Biomedical Equipment Specialist (MOS 68A).
The hope is that the diverse demographics of the military will help direct more people into a biomed MOS.
AAMI recently received approval from the U.S. Department of Labor for its BMET Apprenticeship Program. This program offers an opportunity for individuals from all backgrounds to enter the biomed field with a regimented training program and the guidance of an experienced mentor. The path to an HTM career also includes earning a paycheck during the process and the possibility of avoiding student-loan debt.
A Non-Traditional Field for Women
Women have been an HTM success story, making up a growing contingent within the total population of biomeds and managers. Some of the highest profile members of the HTM community are women. The challenge is to find ways to make more women aware of the HTM field so that HTM becomes as well-known as many “traditional” female professions like teaching and nursing.
“From this woman’s perspective, I believe it starts with a shared ‘yes we can’ confidence building for females of all ages. People (for me it was my mother, grandfather and several teachers) advocating for and empowering girls (me) have been key factors in my introduction and attraction to historically male-dominated technical fields,” says Maggie Berkey, senior BMET in the clinical engineering department at CommonSpirit Health’s Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney, Nebraska.
Berkey is a former AAMI BMET of the Year and the co-creator of AAMI’s BMET Apprenticeship Program.
“We – all HTM professionals – need to be talking to everyone that will listen to spread awareness and interest in the HTM field. Even just wearing a hat or T-shirt to represent the field can be impactful. When we do have opportunities to speak at middle and high schools, career or job fairs, we can thoughtfully tell a story about women rockstars in HTM,” Berkey says.
She says to help the girls that you are introducing to our field understand that several females can brag of successful careers in healthcare technology.
“Plan your bullet points or elevator speech in advance. Keep in mind we have resources like ‘HTM in a Box’ available and that’s just one way to get everyone riled up about HTM,” Berkey adds.
“Besides Danielle McGeary’s speaking engagements and the development of ‘HTM in a Box’ to promote the field as a whole, I am unsure of how the profession is recruiting women to the field,” says Allison Woolford, CBET, who is a senior BMET at UNC Rex Healthcare and an adjunct professor at Durham Technical Community College for the biomedical equipment technology program. Woolford is among a small percentage of African-American women in HTM.
“All of the women that I know and have worked with in the biomed world all got their start by stumbling into the field. When we were in school, we were pushed to be nurses or teachers. Working on electronics or using tools was a man’s job,” Woolford says.
She says that nowadays, there is a big push to get women into the STEM fields which will help them to be biomedical engineers, but that isn’t a push for them to be biomedical equipment technicians.
“I believe that push is what is causing the confusion in regards to what a biomedical equipment technician is and a biomedical engineer,” Woolford says.
Whether or not some guidance towards a STEM career interests women, or some other aspect of biomed catches their interest, it is important to bring awareness of the field to them at an early age.
“It is key for existing women in the HTM field to get out into their communities and represent our field. Showing high school-aged – and younger – girls that our field is a viable career option for them will help to ignite a flame in some to consider a future in HTM. This representation early on can go a long way for the future of our field because usually by college, students have a clearer idea of the direction they’d like to take their future. It might be too late at that stage to draw budding candidates to our field,” says Jennifer Boudreaux Harrison, CCE, chief, clinical engineering at Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System.
Mayra Becerra, BAS, CBET, founder of The BioMedGirl YouTube channel and a biomed in South Florida believes that equalizing pay will incentivize more women to join the field.
“As it is an issue in many industries, equal pay and opportunities for women are also challenging in the HTM field. I say this because I had personally witnessed disparities in pay and positions between women and men in our workforce. Bridging this gap could serve to attract more women to the industry,” she says.
She adds that, “we have to be vocal and explain the potential for having a purpose in the work that we do and giving care is something that could be appealing to women.”
“I see in my hospital now that much of the nursing workforce are women and I think that’s because they are naturally nurturing and want to be able to give care; it’s in our DNA. I think that if you can explain to women that they can also do engineering fields and have purpose without necessarily having to be the one that directly touches the patient, like nurses do, that would be something that could be appealing to a broader or diverse group of women that may not be inclined to want to be directly at the bedside,” Becerra says.
She points out that the HTM field should think about benefits for moms and moms-to-be.
“Finally, a woman that is a mother will be a mother before anything else. So, if we promote family-friendly benefits more women who are mothers or planning to be, wouldn’t have doubts about joining the field and take care of their families at the same time,” Becerra adds.
Taking the Message to Every Community
The same challenge exists with recruiting more members of minorities into HTM. There is a serious lack of awareness of the field problem that exists just like with women. Recruitment efforts should be built around taking the HTM story into minority communities, high schools and colleges. The message should be that HTM is a fulfilling profession with good pay and benefits. HTM professionals play an important role within health care.
“To attract more minorities, we just need to make sure we are going into those areas of our towns/cities. There are stereotypes and misconceptions concerning the intelligence of minorities; especially minority women. The exposure just isn’t there. If we can go into the schools and show them the potential in the field, that would be great,” Woolford says.
Woolford also points to the great return on an educational/training investment that is available to biomeds.
“If I would have known years ago that I didn’t need a four-year degree to be where I am today, I would have started right out of high school,” she says.
Information about HTM has to be widely dispersed in high schools in every community – rural and urban.
“For the longer term, recruitment of diverse candidates starts with a diverse pool, which relies on high school recruitment. AAMI has been trying to do more of this through ‘HTM in a Box’ – but we need much more of this grass roots type recruitment,” Jacques says.
This is the future of HTM to reflect the local community in HTM departments through wide distribution of information about the field in every high school.
