As A Biomedical Engineering Technician, What Was I?

    As A Biomedical Engineering Technician, What Was I? That's the title I came up with for my first blog post about my 37 year career as a BMET which ended with my retirement from Hines VA Hospital in November 2009 . 
    My mind somehow wandered this morning to thoughts of all of the vast array of technology I worked with and on as a BMET for 37 years, most of which as an in-house tech at VA hospitals. I decided it's time to take stock, a so far not unpleasant experience. 
   Mine was a "trade", more of a calling one might say, that required significant mastery of the details of every different technology; electrical systems, electronics, computer systems and networking, communication systems, mechanical systems, thermodynamics, pneumatic systems, fluid dynamics and flow control systems, chemical reactions etc. each medical device employed to function. Not only that but one needed basic understandings of all of the physics, chemistry, biology and human anatomy and physiology behind and driving the function of the vast array of diverse medical equipment each of us was charged with maintaining and repairing. 
   My last few years at Hines VA Hospital were by far my best and most rewarding. In those closing years of my career I was gifted with not only management that appreciated my well earned expertise in vital signs monitoring and cardiology equipment, but also the availability of then new technology to enhance the performance of all of those medical devices for patient well being and to greatly extend the time between failures of the care area equipment systems.  The fact that I FINALLY mastered the divide between the people oriented mindsets of nursing staff and the machine oriented mindset we biomedical engineering technicians must have was a HUGE factor in my successes in those years as well. Having excellent care area managers facilitated that change.