Interview a Health Professional

The name of the Health Professional I chose is Karen Sirmans, She is a registered Dental Hygienist currently working out of Clearwater, Florida working at Dr. John Eifert’s local practice. Karen is registered in many states from Virginia, to North Carolina, New York and most recently Florida as she has had a very mobile life in her past 20 years since becoming a Dental Hygienist. Karen has a degree from Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, N.C. in Dental Hygiene.  Karen’s path to her current position is a bit different. She began her schooling out of high school and decided to attend Old Dominion University, which shortly after she flunked out and packed up to move to North Carolina where she continued to wait tables for the following 10 years of her life. At year 10 following leaving college she got braces which inspired her that it was time to get a “big girl job,” and began working in that same Orthodontist office she got her dental care, she then went back to school to attain her degree in Dental Hygiene and left the Orthodontist office to work for a local dentist office as a Hygienist. Following many moves over the states Karen says the best part of her degree is that she is easily able to find an office where she can practice her skills of a Dental Hygienist. As a Dental Hygienist, Karen’s basic daily roles and responsibilities are seeing about eight to ten patients a day, prepping the room before they arrive, gathering medical history, cleaning, polishing their teeth, evaluating heath gums and teeth then prepping the patient for the doctor to see them. Following the patient’s departure she is responsible for their charts updating and the cleaning and sterilizing of the room to prepare for her next patient. The most rewarding part of her job which is also one of the most challenging parts of her job is patient relationships and she explains this by working in an office for an extended period of time you get to watch your patients grow, she explains how she has got to build relationships with her patients and has watched many of them grow into adults from a young age. The most surprising aspect of the career as a dental hygienist is the wear and tear the position holds on her body, the constant bending, hunching over is a challenge and Karen often faces body aches from working. Some advice from Karen for an individual aspiring to get into the health career would be to make sure you are passionate and have a true liking for the field you go in or else you may be regretful of the efforts you have made to get there. 

What I took away from this meeting is that no matter where you start out or no matter if you fail once, there is always an opportunity to go back and make a change in your career. Through talking with Karen she said she has no regrets about how her professional life panned out or the delay to her career accomplishments she said that she is grateful for all people in her life and she would not have met most of the people truly important to her if her path had been done differently. I choose to take away that the path you’re on is exactly where you’re meant to be and the bumps in the road are ones you’re meant to hit.