SPOTLIGHT
PROFESSIONAL OF THE MONTH: STEPHANIE DRAKE The Right Skill Set BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS
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ot everyone who considers providing veterinarian care to horses ends up as a biomed, but biomeds often take an indirect path to the profession.
Some start out intent on taking the clinician route and end up as HTM professionals. Both were the case with Stephanie Drake, clinical engineering manager with Intermountain Medical Center and TOSH facilities at Intermountain Healthcare IMC/ TOSH in Murray, Utah. Drake didn’t know much about biomed at the start of her journey and considers it a fluke that she found biomed. “I wanted to be an equine veterinarian, then joined the Army in 2008 hoping to become a Combat Medic (68W), but there were none available at the time,” she says. A recruiter she spoke with was a biomed (68A) and pointed her in that direction. “I had no idea what I was getting myself into, yet I caught on well, particularly when it came to the hands-on portions of the training. I do not believe I would have done as well as a combat medic as I have as a biomed, both in and out of the
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military,” Drake says. Training came by way of the military and then more handson experience overseas. “I attended the military’s biomed program at Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, Texas from 2008-2009. It was 10 months of both book and hands-on learning from a Gomco suction unit to closet-sized sterilizers,” Drake says. Shortly after completing that program, she got married and was informed that her unit was slated for deployment to Afghanistan. “That started a six-month process of additional training on devices such as would be used in the lab or imaging,” Drake says. Drake’s HTM journey continued in the civilian world after her time in the military. “I was in the Army Reserve as a biomed and reached sergeant (E5) prior to my contract ending. I joined Intermountain Healthcare in August 2012 as a clinical engineer. I serviced the medical group clinics for three years. I transferred to the LDS Hospital, and with my five years there, I reached tech III and team lead before accepting the clinical engineering manager
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