At Children’s Minnesota, we believe children always come first. They are awesomely resilient. Eternally optimistic. Totally fearless. They are what we want to be when we grow up.
Celebrating American Heart Month
February is American Heart Month. Although taking care of one’s cardiovascular health is always important, Heart Month is a time to raise awareness about heart health and diseases and when everyone can collectively take time to focus on their heart health.
For Heart Month, we are featuring two employees from our cardiovascular (CV) program for our employee spotlights. We’re excited to feature echo sonographer manager, Tom Coyne! He will be sharing all his favorite things about his career at Children’s Minnesota below.
What inspired you to accept your current role?
“I was working as an adult cardiac sonographer and had the opportunity to broaden my skills and get to help kids.”
Why do you like working at Children’s Minnesota?
“The number one absolute best part of my job is getting to interact with the kiddos! They just brighten your day!”
As we celebrate American Heart Month, how do you feel your work at Children’s Minnesota contributes to this community?
“With the ever-increasing number of kids born with heart disease, there is a growing need for more people to learn and be able to work with this population. Over the years I’ve been able to take part in training many adult techs to work in a pediatric setting. I really enjoy the training aspect of my job and can feel good about having made a small contribution to there being echo techs able to perform high quality and difficult echocardiograms for years to come.”
If you could describe Children’s Minnesota in one word, what would it be?
“Compassionate.”
What is the most exciting thing about working in your department? What is the most challenging?
“What separates a pediatric cardiac sonographer from one who works with adults is knowing that you’ll never see it all. There will always be a congenital heart disease you haven’t scanned before. There will always be a challenging newborn arriving in the middle of the night and unless they’ve had a fetal echo, you get to be the first one to sort out what their heart issues are. It can be a daunting task to determine how the patient’s anatomy is connected, or isn’t connected, but being able to have confidence in your training and relying on your skills to help these kids really does give one a big boost of pride.”
Join the team!
Are you looking for a challenging but rewarding career? Children’s Minnesota is seeking qualified candidates to join our CV team!