Sometimes your spouse is right and you should pay attention. Some people actually heed their spouse’s suggestions and that was the case with one HTM professional in Dallas.
“I was 18 years old when I became a medical assistant and worked for an internist who would have a cardiologist, podiatrist, and general surgeons rounding in our Las Colinas office,” says Gina Contreras, BS, CBET, clinical engineer in Clinical Technology, part of Biomedical Technology Services at Baylor Scott and White Health.
“I was exposed to a myriad of opportunities to continue my education and was unsure of the direction in which to go,” she recalls. “ I knew I wanted to study medicine, but because I had small children at home, I knew I had to decide quickly. When my husband suggested I study biomedical engineering, I thought he was insane. I thought there was no way I could commit to something I knew nothing about.”
It didn’t take long for Contreras to realize that she loved the idea of designing machines to improve someone’s quality of life. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical engineering technology from DeVry. Her fourth year really launched her career.
“Our senior project took countless days and evenings to achieve the best senior project of my class. It was a device that was geared toward quadriplegic patients; comprised of sensors, amplifiers to increase the signals, software, and finally AC receptacles for outputs.,” Contreras says.
“Our goal was to give patients the power to operate on/off switches by capturing movement from the patient’s forehead to operate anything that would plug into our AC plugs,” she explains. “Ultimately, we got the attention of the judges who hired me at Baylor Health Care System. Here I am five and a half years later.”
Her education was supplemented by what she describes as “ad hoc training;” learning from veteran biomeds in her department. Her on-the-job training came from specialists in the ED and OR.
“I attended a couple formal courses for nurse call training and GE patient monitoring,” she adds.
Contreras started out at Baylor as a BMET in March of 2009.
“In July of 2013, I was promoted to clinical engineer because of my involvement with several in-house projects,” she says. “One of which included the improvement of nurse to patient response time by communicating with clinicians the services available to them they didn’t know they had. We pulled data from reporting servers to determine what configurations could be made.”
That promotion changed the characteristics of her job fairly substantially. She was used to handling the day-to-day functions of a biomed technician. Her new job resulted from her increasing involvement in replacing equipment, attending meetings and communicating with suppliers related to network integration. She gained knowledge on how to manage projects and how to work with networks.
Her current boss, Richard Swim, was looking for someone with networking experience and Contreras also had project management experience.
“When I interviewed for the clinical equipment management position, that’s exactly what my new manager was looking for,” she explains. “Now it’s a totally different spectrum of knowledge; going from opening and closing devices to now we’re setting up equipment on networks. Whether it’s hard-wired or wireless, to communicate with the rest of the hospital. It’s completely different.”
Her position requires more collaboration with IT than before.
“I have to make sure that the equipment we set up on our hospital network is secure and that we set up our switches and our ports and all of our equipment with the correct configurations,” she says. “If we don’t, we could shut down the system or mess up whatever other devices are on the Baylor network.”
“Gina is a true inspiration,” says Carol Wyatt, MPA, CBET, manager of biomedical engineering at Baylor. “She started with Baylor as a biomed tech and did an outstanding job. She moved into a clinical engineer role a little over a year ago. Besides managing medical equipment applications such as MedNet, she manages projects for the entire Northern Baylor Scott and White’s 14 hospitals.”
Wyatt points to one example where Contreras’s skill set was of great benefit to her employer.
“One of our hospitals experienced interference between the WOWs and the infusion pumps. It was a frequency conflict. Due to lack of on-site resources, Gina volunteered to resolve the issue by changing the frequency protocols, which required touching 160 infusion pumps,” Wyatt says.
Family
Away from work, her kids are a big priority.
“My hobbies are spending my every waking moment to raise my children and all other children spiritually with love and confidence in Him. My husband and I coach for U15 girls with a team of 19. They are my Alpha Phi United girls,” she says. “We also enjoy hiking, biking, and anything else that pushes us out of our own element — kind of like being a biomed.”
A true believer in the ability of girls to set goals for their futures, Contreras encourages the girls to pursue their dreams. She is more than willing to be a helpful mentor.
Contreras and her husband met in high school and have been together for more than 19 years.
“We have three beautiful blessings; Jasmine, 18, Isaiah, 16, and Abigail, 14,” she says. “My daughter will begin college this fall to pursue a career as a physician’s assistant, my son has ambitions to become a cardiac surgeon, and Abi would like to be a professional soccer athlete or go into marketing for FIFA.”
Her kids have the same spirit of unlimited possibilities that Contreras believes in based on her journey.
“I have been blessed to have been surrounded by amazing leaders. Even when I didn’t have faith in myself, I’ve always had someone to encourage me to go beyond my own understanding. Recently, I had a manager tell me, ‘Never be afraid of a job description, if it’s something you want,’ ” she says.
- Favorite book: “Forbidden Love”
- Favorite movie: “The Story of Us”
- Favorite food: Italian or pan dulce (look it up)
- Hidden talent: I love to sing!
- Favorite part of being a biomed: “Patient/Customer satisfaction! I love knowing that I was able to resolve an issue with little or no interruption.”
- Favorite Music: Richard Meyer / Andrea Bocelli
- Favorite Drink: Water
- Favorite Snack: Apple
- What’s on my bench? My laptop; a DELL Latitude E6520, My Daily Promise
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