Everything we do at CardioServ is driven by our passion to to inspire excellence in imaging. The fun we have as a company is finding the best channels to accomplish this mission! We believe that collectively as a community we can all help each other to be better. It is this belief that has inspired us to create our industry spotlight series. We will introduce you to like-minded individuals that share our vision. This week we will introduce you to STARSS (Specialty Training & Advanced Review Sonographer Services) and share how they are working to help you be your very best!
Meet Jennie Durant! Jennie is the CEO and Educational Director of Specialty Training & Advanced Review Sonography Services (STARSS). With over 25 years of experience, Jennie is a multi-credentialed sonographer who travels the U.S. educating both physicians and sonographers in vascular, general and fetal echo ultrasound! Her passion is sonography, which allows her to educate and inspire others.
She has a wide variety of clinical ultrasound experience including vascular surgery, neurology, pediatric radiology and cardiology! Jennie also has educational and teaching experience through various accredited sonography programs. She gives back to the ultrasound community by serving on the board for the Minnesota Society of Diagnostic Ultrasound, SDMS Foundation Board, plus Education and CME committees.
Jennie has pretty much done it all! Her career experience even includes being an author, editor, reviewer and speaker! She was awarded the Kenneth R. Gottesfeld Award in 2016 for the publishing of outstanding research journal in the Journal of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (JDMS).
My favorite question to ask people, is not so much about what they do or how they do it but….WHY? Why do you do what you do? Jennie’s answer resonated with our team here at CardioServ. Jennie’s purpose as the CEO of STARRS is to make a difference within the field of ultrasound. Her passion that drives her to excel is fueled by the joy she gets in helping others believe they can learn anything, and do anything, they put their mind to!
A very close peer and friend suggested that I use my passion, talents and experience to help educate others for various scanning modalities. Knowing there was a large need for advanced sonography training, I started STARSS in the fall of 2015. I wanted to make a difference within the sonography field. I came up with the name and mission of STARSS based from this short story by Loren Eiseley:
‘One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?” The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back they’ll die.”
“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and thousands of starfish? You can’t make a difference.”
After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then smiling at the man, he said… “I made a difference for that one.”’
STARSS offers both on and off site services! The on-site services includes: hands on & didactic instruction in vascular, TCD, pediatric sonography, OB high-risk, fetal echo, abdomen, neurosonography, ophthalmic sonography, machine set up and cross training. We also offer registry review courses in physics, general, vascular, pediatric and fetal echo. Other services such as accreditation and management consulting are also offered. We also offer our services internationally as either a seminar or webinar speaking format.
Our services are all offered on-site at your facility! Having been a manager of multiple departments, I understand the limited budget allowance for sonographer training and education. It is common for facilities to spend high dollar amounts per sonographer to attend destination courses, only to quickly forget the material once they return. STARSS allows us to come directly to your facility and teach all the sonographers didactically in one setting. This allows one-on-one time with each staff member on their known equipment. We also offer a 3-day registry review at central locations around the U.S! If your facility would like to host a registry review course, a 10% discount will be applied to each of your sonographers! Please visit STARSS website here for more information.
STARSS has developed a study app for your phone! This digital Vascular Review app is a great tool to ensure your success in passing your RVT or RVS exam. Over 500 questions with hundreds of images. There are various ways to help you learn. You can download the app to any Android or Apple product for easy access to studying both on and offline! Visit our site, here for more information.
Upcoming STARSS Events:
Fetal Heart Class & Review Course
November 3-5, 2017 at Edina, Minnesota
Up to 17 CME’s available! Sign up here!
Jennie, thank you for sharing your story of how you took your passion and knowledge and shared it with the ultrasound community. You share our vision of inspiring excellence in imaging and we are happy to feature you in our blog this week. We appreciate the 10% discount you are offering our readers and look forward to touching base with you again to hear how you are continuing to add value to the diagnostic imaging community. Please feel free to share you comments below. If you are adding value to our ultrasound community and would like to be featured in our Industry Spotlight series please contact me.
Judith Buckland, MBA, RDCS, FASE, President
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