Faces of Bryan

Everyone endured tough moments during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the cardiovascular sonography department at Bryan Medical Center was no different. But one sonographer’s contagious smile helped bring some much-needed light during challenging times.

Cindy Schroeder has been a cardiac sonographer in the echocardiography (echo) lab at Bryan Medical Center for 15 years. She’s been there when it’s seen incredible growth and when they’ve faced difficult challenges, but through it all, she’s kept a smile on her face.

“She’s always the light in the dark,” Danen Boyd, cardiac and vascular services director, said. “There is never a time that I have not turned a corner and seen a smile on Cindy’s face.”

A Hearty Interest

Cindy first discovered an interest in health care, specifically for the heart, when her dad developed heart issues while she was in high school. When college came around, she decided she wanted to pursue a career in cardiac rehab. However, her college didn’t have a nursing program. So, she majored in the next closest thing – exercise science and wellness.

After completing her bachelor's degree, she began working at a hospital in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where she was trained in echocardiography (ultrasounds of the heart).

She loved it.

After nine years into her job, she learned of an opening at Bryan Medical Center for an echo sonographer. She decided to apply, since she currently lived in Lincoln and had been commuting to Council Bluffs every day.

She got the job, becoming one of about 30 sonographers in the department.

Opportunities in the Workplace

Cindy fit right in at Bryan. Her compassion for patients made her a great addition to the team.

“She’s always smiling and just brings joy to us,” Danen said. “When it comes to patient care, she has sincere compassion and care for patients.”

Cindy loved working with patients, and she appreciated Bryan’s approach to patient care.

“At Bryan, our goal is to treat everyone as if they were our own family and how they would like to be treated,” she said.

Aside from patient care, Cindy also loved that Bryan offered her the opportunity to help with and perform other cardiac exams and procedures, like transaortic valve replacement, pulmonary vein isolation and transesophageal echo. The different procedures gave her variety in her work.

The opportunities only continued to expand as the department continued to grow. After 15 years at Bryan, Cindy’s team grew from around 30 sonographers to around 40 today.

“That growth and the opportunity to be able to do different cardiac procedures with echo has been wonderful,” she said. “It's created a lot of opportunities, and I think a lot of sonographers that are here, including me, really appreciate that.”

Facing Challenges Together

Those 15 years did not come without challenges, however. For a time, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, burnout began getting the best of many in Cindy’s department.

“It wasn't easy,” she said. “You just see all your friends leave, and you know how good of sonographers they are, and they're no longer going to be here. That was very hard.”

But Cindy always managed to find her smile, even during the difficult times.

“What kept me going is the culture at Bryan and the co-workers I did have here,” she said. “You just didn't want to desert each other. You've been through the thick and thin, so you're just going to ride it out. You just want to stay here.”

After Danen came on board, along with non-invasive cardiovascular manager Katie Lee, changes came to the department, and Cindy was instrumental in helping implement the changes to improve the work environment.

“She has that optimism of ‘yeah, we'll give it a try. We'll see how it goes,’” Danen said. “She plays the role of positive thinking for the team.

“She’s that person where I wish I had 25 of them.”

Again, Cindy modestly gave the credit for the department’s culture shift to her team.

“There’s been some tough times, like during COVID, that we have really bonded together. We leaned on each other,” she said. “Everybody's always willing to help each other out.”