Cindy Baez: Hello, my name is Cindy Baez. I am the Vice President of Patient Care Services. I've worked at San Juan Regional Medical Center for almost 32 years. I have been in my current position since 2008. I'm talking today about finding your passion in life. I recently had the opportunity to participate in leadership training offered by the hospital.

In this training, we worked on a journey line exercise. The purpose of this exercise was to enhance self-awareness and understand the origins of one's core values and strongly held beliefs. We were instructed to chart using a timeline, significant events of our lives, assigning them to either high times or hard times.

The high times were plotted above the axis relative to each other. While the hard times were plotted below the line relative to each other, the highest points reflect the best times in my life and the lowest points were the worst times in my life. My timeline started in 1983, which was the birth of my daughter, and ended in 2024 with my current position as Vice President of Patient Care Services.

I will not go into every detail of my timeline, though as I completed this project, I realized that both family and work were the high times on my timeline, both of which are my passion. I enjoy spending time with my family. Since our children and grandchildren all live in Texas, my husband and I do not get to spend as much time as we would like with them.

However, my husband and I have much in common and both have a passion for hunting and being outdoors. Many that know me would agree. We have gone on many hunts, including buffalo, mule deer, whitetail deer, elk, antelope, wild hog, and Axis deer. We have traveled to South Dakota, Texas, and many different areas in New Mexico to hunt.

If you have visited my home, you would see that hunting is one of my passions as displayed on our walls. I always thought of hobbies as just that, hobbies. But in reality, hobbies can be someone's passion. The two things I enjoy doing are quilting and crocheting. I have made several quilts for our grandchildren, six so far, and I have three more to go.

I also enjoy crocheting that I have done for many years. I like to crochet small projects like baby blankets, scarves. I give them as presents for birthdays, Christmas, or baby showers. Last year, a few of my friends participated in the Festivals of the Trees here in Farmington. We crocheted all the Christmas ornaments for the tree, including the angel tree topper.

We called it the Home Spun Christmas. We are planning to participate again this year with a new theme. Of course, the ornaments will be crocheted and handmade. You will have to go to the Festival of Trees to see our creation this year. In regard to my other passion, which is work, work is an important part of who I am.

As I stated before, I've worked at San Juan Regional Medical Center for almost 32 years. I've had the pleasure of starting as a staff nurse, and I've worked my way up to my current position. While being a staff nurse on the Nephrology unit, it was my passion to care for the patients with end stage renal disease.

I had great mentors on this unit, which allowed me the opportunity to learn and grow as a nurse. With several years of nursing experience under my belt, I was promoted to a clinical coordinator position. Acting in a supervisor role, I still provided direct patient care and also was a resource to the clinical staff.

In my position as a clinical coordinator where I managed daily operations, scheduling and assignments and provided education to staff is when I found that leadership was my passion. Being a mentor myself,intrigued me. 

That continued my want and need to learn even more if I wanted to be a good mentor. After several years of this position, I was then promoted to the patient care manager of the nephrology unit. With this position came more responsibility, but I was up for the challenge. I served as the manager for six years, and I am proud to say that many of the staff that I hired in this position still work for San Juan Regional Medical Center.

Then came the opportunity for the position that I still hold today. My division in Nursing consists of all inpatient units, the emergency department, the cardiac cath lab, cardiopulmonary rehab, outpatient nursing clinic, and professional resource team, and the house supervisors.

I continue to have a passion to mentor staff, not only in leadership position, but frontline staff as well. Work can absolutely be a passion, and for many, it is a source of deep fulfillment and motivation. Work can provide a sense of purpose and contribute to something bigger than yourself, which can be a powerful source of passion.

It is important to be passionate about the work you do. I take great pride in the work that I have accomplished in my career so far and look forward to the future opportunities at San Juan Regional Medical Center. I challenge each person listening to reflect on what is your passion in life and work on seeing it through. Thank for listening today and I wish you have a great day.