Tami Coffman

I am a 51 years old, who went back to school approximately 7 years ago. When I was younger, I always wanted to work in the medical field but I was talked out of it. My dad passed away around 10 years ago and I knew I had to fulfill my dream of helping others especially after seeing how poorly my dad was treated.

My goal is to treat each patient as if they are my family. I am someone who takes pride in taking care of others not only physically, but mentally, too. Making patients' smile or laugh for even 10 seconds makes me smile. I want others to know that we care in the medical field. 

I may be 51-year-old but I have a 31-year-old mind and energy. I want to make a difference, if only to help brighten the scariness of our testing or be someone to lend an ear to. 

I, also, make it a mission of mine to get to know the people I will be interacting with on a day-to-day basis. Right now, I have a great rapport with the ER drs, IR rads, co-workers, staff of Radiology Department, RNs on all the other floors, friends with the L&D RNs, etc. These connection  help me, help my patients better. 

This is me! A woman who wants to make a difference!

Following up on myself, I have fallen in love with Ultrasound. When I decided to go back to school to be in the medical field, I knew I didn't want to be an RN so I thought about many different careers but one that kept jumping out at me was, Ultrasound. I have kidney disease, that is very well maintained, but throughout the years, I would get ultrasounds for it and I figured, what a great department to join. 

I have a paralegal degree which I enjoyed for a while but then things changed. It seemed like it was all about who had more money to fight dirtier. I was no longer helping others, I was going against my own integrity and I couldn't do that. Walking away from it was letting go of so much stress and tension. In the medical field, money doesn't buy you better care, at least, not in the areas I am around. I have been scanning for about 3 years on my own. I work mostly nights currently for the sole purpose of learning the best way to scan. There was nobody there to help me, I needed to figure it out on my own and it made me a better scanner. I, am, also, very passionate about truly looking for what is causing a patient's pain or illness. 

In the beginnings of learning vascular, I thought, I could completely do without doing this. However, having to do it so much on my own has made it one of my secret guilty pleasures! These are some of my favorite exams now that I have learned them so well.

I am someone who will ask to do the scans I do not do well until I can do my best. Doing my best is what I come to work for. 

I received my Bachelors in Applied Science, Diagnosis Medical Sonographer. This is the one thing in my life that I am so proud of that I did all by myself. My children are definitely my favorite thing in the world but my degree was done completely by me and I am so proud of doing it, especially when I was in my 40s.