Staff Spotlight
Kayla O'Donnell, Sonographer
Continuing our highlight of Sonography Week, we are pleased to introduce you to Kayla O’Donnell, a diagnostic medical sonographer working in the role of Clinical Liaison at St. Paul’s Hospital (SPH) and trains students from BCIT and CNC in a hands-on clinical setting to perform diagnostic medical ultrasounds.
Medical detectives at work
“I really enjoy the puzzle aspect [of my role]!” says Kayla. “Sonographers (and sonography students alike) are basically medical detectives. We are given some clinical information via documentation (requisition or chart). We have information from communicating with the patient. We utilize and optimize our equipment to document anatomic clues. It is our job to put all of this information into a preliminary report, and present it to our wonderful staff of radiologists.”
Before pursuing her studies with ultrasound, Kayla always thought the prospect of having a healthcare career would be really interesting and was seeking a job where every day would be different.
Growing her career in B.C.
Kayla grew up in the Maritimes and studied at Dalhousie University but decided to relocate to British Columbia as she wanted to start her career in a hospital that had a vast caseload (some sites do not perform obstetric or certain vascular examinations) and SPH offered this.
“The challenge of working with the diverse patient population is so exciting,” she says. “One thing I did not anticipate, however, was the passion I have for teaching! After becoming more comfortable in my role, I started teaching BCIT students and residents a few days a month. Eventually, the Clinical Liaison job was posted and now I get to teach every day!”
Kayla’s inspirational moments often come from helping patients. “Sometimes they will have had many tests to try and diagnose an issue they are having, however, the other tests may not be the right one to answer their clinical question; whereas ultrasound is,” she explains. “Although we cannot give results, it is really satisfying to know that the patient will receive answers soon from the emergency physician, or GP.”
It is important that all staff feels supported working at VCH and Kayla can attest to this. “I feel SO supported in my role,” she says. “My supervisor and colleagues create such a wonderful work environment and we truly are a team. We laugh, we cry and we scan together! We are a team. I could not be more proud to say I am a part of the SPH Ultrasound crew.”
Kayla incorporates the VCH values (We Care for Everyone, We Are Always Learning and We Strive for Better Results) every day through her passion for teaching, learning and doing her best to provide diagnostic care for patients while also training the next generation of technologists to also incorporate these values.
“As a sonographer, we theoretically learn to “pat our heads and rub our bellies”! It can be really difficult to master this, but working the machine and adjusting the image parameters while scanning is a tricky skill to learn.”
Join our team
Explore the current career opportunities for Medical Imaging at Vancouver Coastal Health.