Heather Benjamin, RN, CRN Spotlight
March 17, 2023
Heather Benjamin, RN, CRN, is one of the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging’s most recent certified nurses. She has been in nursing for 25 years, with 6 in radiology, and two years ago Heather joined our department, bringing with her a stockpile of experience and skill. She is happy to now be a part of the UC Health team, “Certification and other ways to advance your career are acknowledged and appreciated here. There is a focus on continuing education and advancement, along with compassion, that is not always seen elsewhere.”
Heather earned her BS in Health Education from San Francisco State University. There she took a homelessness and public policy class where she had the chance to hear a guest speaker, a nurse who had founded a prenatal program for homeless women. That speaker sparked what would eventually be Heather’s change in career from health educator to nursing. Heather described the experience, “Her compassion was so inspirational. Her vision and her service to that community really steered me in the direction of wanting to go into nursing.”
However, as a particularly drill-sergeant-esque instructor told Heather in her first year of nursing school at City College of San Francisco, compassion alone is not enough. “You’re only as good as your resources.” This dictum stuck with Heather and has helped her focus on appreciating the quality of knowledge and experience we each bring to the table. It also led her to eventually pursue her nursing certificate. Certified nurses are registered nurses (RNs) who have obtained additional certification in a specific area of nursing practice. The desire to learn and build up her own wealth of knowledge is part of what initially steered Heather towards radiology nursing. She said, “There was a great mentor in my nursing career who encouraged me to enter radiology. She said to me, ‘you'll never be bored.’ And she was right.”
Prior to joining UCSF, Heather had a 21-year nursing career at Mills Peninsula Sutter Medical Center in Burlingame. When Heather began eyeing her current position at UCSF, it was the culture as well as the opportunities that drew her, “I like the academic environment here; I like the opportunity for growth.” Heather appreciates UCSF’s collegial culture which stresses effective patient care rather than strict hierarchy. “Here everybody has their own worth and their input is valued. It's very much a team approach.”
As a radiology nurse at UCSF, Heather preps patients for their exams in MRI and CT, and screens them to find high-risk patients who she can then monitor during exams, starts IVs, gives medications, and manages allergic reactions to contrast dyes. Heather also teaches IV insertion skills to MRI techs and students. She enjoys this opportunity to serve as an educator. “I love to see them gain confidence and skills.”
Heather’s certification encompasses a range of topics in radiology nursing. The certification can combine interventional radiology, vascular surgery, neurology, and nephrology as well as different modalities such as nuclear medicine, ultrasound, CT, MRI, and fluoroscopy. The path to the exam involves a 15-hour online class, extensive videos to watch and rewatch, and books of practice tests. Heather described, “There is a huge amount of information that we must study. Each area has a specific nursing role that you must understand.”
In the end, more valuable than all the studying were the two decades of nursing experience Heather brought to the exam room. “I think that we forget what an incredible knowledge base we nurses all have. You must take a minute to appreciate what unique and valuable things you bring to the table.” Heather has always gone to great lengths to expand on the experience. In 2015 she took part in a gynecologic surgical mission to Ica, Peru with the organization MedLend. “That trip fused my two passions, nursing and traveling. It was one of the best weeks of my life. I made lifelong friends and gained a tremendous amount of insight.” Heather’s next medical mission will be taking her to Costa Rica in summer of 2023.
Long before Heather knew she wanted to become a nurse, Heather’s grandmother helped cultivate a compassionate outlook. “My grandmother came here from New Zealand when she was 18, after meeting my grandfather during WWII. She impressed upon me the importance of showing up for all the people who depend on you.” As Heather describes it, that determined compassion is a skill and a resource. “My grandmother told me, ‘The greatest gift that you can give someone is your presence.’”
Heather’s grandmother also inspired her newest endeavor, knitting. After growing up swaddled in knitted blankets, which she still keeps to this day, Heather is now taking knitting classes to make caps for her brain tumor patients.
In healthcare, where patients often feel reduced to a medical reference number, nurses like Heather go through the extra step of effort and compassion to let them know they are seen as a unique individual. She says, “They all have unique issues, insecurities, fears. They want to be seen, heard, and valued. I try to focus on that.” The patients notice these extra steps. Heather has seen patients come into the office just to visit, without any appointment scheduled. On Halloween she got a visit from a long-time patient dressed as the scarecrow from Wizard of OZ, on another occasion she received homemade cookies shaped like brains in remission. She’s even been invited to patients’ weddings.
Outside of nursing, Heather has been playing the piano since she was 8 years old and goes to watch live music as much as she can, as well as karaoke. She is also an eager hiker through the Coastal Redwoods trails, an enthusiastic traveler, and when at home she also loves to cook. She specializes in Mediterranean cuisine, focusing on meatless dishes as an aspiring vegetarian. Her personal specialty is her butternut squash lasagna.