The Mocingbird team recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Katie Spiess, a nurse-midwife, and advisor to the company, to discuss her experience as a women’s healthcare provider. In this interview, Spiess shares her journey to becoming a midwife, her biggest fears after completing her training, and the lessons she learned along the way. Her passion for midwifery and dedication to improving maternal mortality rates are truly inspiring.
After learning about the high maternal mortality rates in the United States, particularly among women of color, Spiess felt called to become a midwife to make a difference. The midwifery model of care is increasingly being recognized as a key strategy to address these alarming statistics – a fact Spiess and her midwife colleagues have known for a long time. Spiess finds the work of a midwife to be fulfilling and challenging and is committed to combating maternal mortality rates.
One of Spiess' biggest fears as a new practitioner was making a critical error that would harm a patient. Fortunately, she had an excellent mentor who gave her enough support to learn and make mistakes without putting patients in danger. Looking back, Spiess has no regrets about her educational preparation and found that building positive relationships with her preceptors was key to building foundational skills and confidence.
However, Spiess wishes she had anticipated the toll that professional politics would take on her and had proactively planned her next career steps earlier in her career trajectory. For upcoming graduating students, Spiess advises selecting a job that gives back to you, working with people you really like, and finding a mentor you feel safe with. She also advises considering what comes after graduation and proactively planning the next steps in one’s career.
In conclusion, Katie Spiess's dedication to I'm proving maternal mortality rates through midwifery is admirable. Her experience and advice can serve as a roadmap for others who are interested in pursuing a healthcare career. The Mocingbird team is grateful for the opportunity to learn from Spiess and to have her as an advisor to the company.
About Mocingbird
Mocingbird is a SaaS management platform that improves medicine and clinician well-being by eliminating the chaos of ongoing credentialing and delivering high-impact Continuing Medical Education. For individual clinicians, we develop a one-stop solution to validate, track, document, and calculate the CME requirements for the maintenance of their professional licenses. For healthcare organizations, we provide a management tool that offers a real-time overview of compliance for risk mitigation. Mocingbird was founded by Interventional Cardiologist, Dr. George Fernaine and Orthopedic Spine Surgeon and CEO, Dr. Ian Madom.
