Here are inspirational thoughts and advice from four of Intermountain's female medical leaders to celebrate Women in Medicine Month.
Anika Gardenhire
Anika Gardenhire, Care Transformation and Information Systems associate vice president of digital transformation: When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? “I wanted to be the surgeon general. I’m a first-generation college student so just the thought is pretty astounding. One of the greatest gifts my mother ever gave me was telling me that if I worked hard enough I could do it, and she meant it. The surgeon general is a very significant position in the military. In addition to the surgeon general, who presides over the Department of Health and Human Services, there’s also a surgeon general for each of the three branches of the military, and unlike the national surgeon general, they’re positions of clinical rank. As a child I was definitely not aware of the necessary qualifications to obtain this rank, but I did know I wanted to earn the ability to care for people. We didn’t have a female surgeon general of the army until 2012 (she was a nurse by the way). We didn’t have a black woman until 2017 (Nadja West is amazing!). Unlike many in my family I didn’t join the military, so I’m clearly not qualified, but I was still so excited to watch from the sidelines.”
Bonnie Jacklin, RN
Bonnie Jacklin, RN, senior nursing director for the Office of Patient Experience: What's the best advice you've been given, and how did it help you? "Say 'yes' to opportunities. As a bedside nurse, if a request was made for someone to be on a taskforce or help write a policy, I'd say yes. This allowed me to meet different teams and network across the hospital. When the chief nursing officer asked if I'd help develop the strategy and structure for the new McKay-Dee Hospital in 2002, I said yes. That experience led to me later becoming the chief nursing officer of the North Region and ultimately to where I am today."
Denitza Blagev, MD
Denitza Blagev, MD, medical director for quality in Specialty-Based Care and of the Pulmonary Disease Management Navigator Program: What made you decide to make a career in healthcare? “I became a doctor because I wanted to help people. And it turned out that helping people is about building relationships, creativity, problem-solving, and discovery. At its most basic, being a doctor is listening to people’s stories and helping to make meaning of suffering, and when we’re lucky, alleviating suffering. Medicine is also a field of discovery. As a physician, I can both focus on the small day-to-day steps of being present for someone who needs help, and I can step back and look at a broader perspective of how I might learn more, or do research, or improve processes, which involve operations and quality, so medicine and what we can offer is better and broader in the future.”
Linnea Baggett
Linnea Baggett, director of organizational research and evaluation: What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders? "Pursue what you're passionate about and don't worry about lack of resources; they're just a circumstance of the moment. Listening can be one of your greatest tools of influence — ultimately people want to do the right thing and will move forward once they've been heard. Be kind and be collaborative — relationships are what will help you become a successful leader."