Note from the Associate Editorial Director: Thoughts about leadership
I was just in the office kitchen joking with ACDIS Director Brian Murphy about how I’d always envisioned myself being a bigwig in a national healthcare association.
In our “Meet a Member” articles in the CDI Journal and CDI Strategies, we often ask folks about their first job and about their journey into the world of clinical documentation improvement. My first job was stuffing envelopes with some type of business collateral in the back room of a New England scuba diving shop. I also cleaned a dentist office. My later high school and college years I spent teaching daycare.
I had other jobs, too—secretary for an IT division of LibertyMutual, reporter and then editor of my hometown newspaper, managing editor for a radiology newsletter here with HCPro.
Most of you hail from diverse backgrounds, as well. Many of you worked in ice cream shops or fabric stores; started your careers coding in the neighborhood physician office or as floor nurses in hometown hospitals.
My dream job, that person I always wanted to be when I was little, was either a newspaper reporter or a teacher.
In my current role as the associate editorial director for ACDIS, I’m blessed with being able to work in both these roles. I get to play reporter, to talk to our members, to listen to their stories and retell the tales of their struggles and triumphs, sharing them with the rest of the membership so that we might all learn from their lessons and leverage their wisdom and growth in our own practices.
Over the past decade, we’ve grown together from these shared experiences. Like me, many moving into the CDI profession understand little other than broad concepts about what the position might entail. Those new to CDI learn by on-the-job training, taking a CDI Boot Camp, studying training textbooks, and hopefully through their ACDIS membership as well.
As ACDIS has grown over the past decade, we’ve watched our members’ careers grow, too—from CDI specialists performing record reviews to management roles to directorships over multiple hospital CDI programs.
So, my thought on leadership is this—that like so much in life, one may not set out with the intention of becoming a leader in any particular field or of any particular group but through grace and compassion end up becoming such because they step forward into the unknown, ever curious, ever engaging in the process of continued learning, ever generous with the knowledge they’ve obtained, ever giving back to those bright inquisitive CDI lights coming after them.
Editor’s note: Varnavas is the Associate Editorial Director for ACDIS and has worked with its parent company for nearly 12 years. Contact her at mvarnavas@acdis.org. ACDIS publishes a wide-variety of materials to help CDI professionals advance their careers, including: a position paper on the topic of CDI leadership, one on CDI credentialing, and one about defining CDI roles; a note about the value of the CCDS; a white paper on the topic of CDI career ladders and a sample ladder; two Q&As regarding career advancement; career advice from a CDI leader; and advice as to using the Salary Survey for career advancement.