Update #1: What I Do

Instead of having too long of a post (although I'm sure it's happened before), I decided I'm going to split up the next few posts for separate updates.  The updates are going to vary throughout this next week ranging from my new job, move-in weekend and our community group experience.  First up - what I do.

As you all know, I recently started a new position at a for-profit hospital and healthcare organization in Bedford.  The basis of what the organization stands for is around the term "patient experience", which is defined as the sum of all interactions, shaped by an organization's culture, that influence patient perceptions across the continuum of care. 

We are a community of practice, meaning we provide a sharing platform for all hospitals and healthcare professionals to share how they are working to achieve patient experience (PX).  Most of the PX professionals are commonly known as Member Experience or Client Satisfaction Coordinators, although there are a growing number of titles that refer to Patient Experience Managers.

We offer webinars, specific topic calls, white papers (aka research papers), blogs, etc for all our members, and a small fee for our guests (non-members).  It's amazing to see how much The Beryl Institute has achieved within the last three years of being a stand-alone organization.  We are here to serve all our members from all over the world, from the California west coast and the New York east coast to regions in Canada and hospitals in Sweden.  We used to be a part of BerylHealth, but now we are stand-alone although we still house in the BerylHealth building.  I almost feel like a stepchild in the building because we house a small section of that huuuuuge building.

As a Marketing and Membership Coordinator, I provide administrative and scheduling support to the team as a whole in addition to managing marketing metrics, analyzing our communication outlets, writing press releases and editing all publications.  It really is a broad list of tasks that I do, but my position was created to bring more organization to our virtual team.  By virtual team (6-8 employees), we are all in different parts of the United States.  Fortunately, three of us are here in the same Dallas region.  With so many projects going on and a growing number of members, I've been able to come in and alleviate some tasks from other co-workers so we can work more efficiently as a team.

The best thing about my job is that because we are still fairly small, I feel like I've joined a family.  Despite that I'm starting in a completely new industry with so much jargon (hospital and healthcare - ahh!), my co-workers have made me feel very comfortable.  I came in for some training right before Christmas and the team included me in their holiday gift exchange although I wasn't officially a part of them yet.  Because of the virtual team and work we do, I have the option to work from home if a circumstance called for it.  It's been great!

Another large part of maintaining a global community is also providing conferences for our members for networking opportunities and an opportunity to "learn by sharing."  The Beryl Institute hosts an annual conference as well as two roundtables a year.  I'm excited to be a part of our upcoming conference in April and, lucky me, it's the first time TBI will have a conference out of state.  I'm going to Chicago!

There's much less travel in my new position, which is much different from the local and community work I was doing in my old position.  It's relieving somewhat.  However, I still get to travel to new cities for the work that we do so I definitely will not be losing the travel aspect of work.  I go to Chicago this month, Orlando in March and Chicago again in April.  We have some locations floating around for our fall roundtables, so I'm excited to learn where the two locations will be for the rest of the year.

I'm thankful.  That's all I can say about this entire work experience.  It's amazing that I can transfer my learned skills into a completely new area of interest (prevention to hospitals/healthcare) and still be able to excel.  As a young professional, I will continue to be a sponge about everything - to absorb new information and become knowledgeable in many areas. 

So... next time someone asks me what I do for a living or to explain what my position is, I may or may not just direct them to this blog post ;)

My new team!

Where I spend 40 hours a week :)

P.S. 2 MORE DAYS UNTIL MOVE-IN DAY!


Until next time,