President's Message

Greetings FLSSAMT members!

Happy Holidays & Hannukah!

As this year ends it is time to reflect on what made this year great and what was not so great. What can we do to make 2025 a better year?

The spring 2025 meeting is being held in Fort Lauderdale at the Marriott Fort Lauderdale North, 6650 N. Andrews Ave, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309. Reservations will start soon so, please watch your email for the reservation link! I look forward to having everyone in attendance for the great line up of speakers we have. At this meeting not only will we have great educational sessions, but we will be voting on the delegates for the annual meeting.

The Annual Meeting is in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania July 20-25. Watch your email for details. We are looking for delegates that want to be part of the fun. If you have never been a delegate this is a great way to meet others from AMT in your discipline, make new friends, and get involved in your organization. Please submit your name to me or our FLSSAMT secretary Sheri Daugherty at flssamtsecretary@gmail.com.

Lastly, we are looking for members who want to get involved in the state society by being on some of the various committees. This is your state society so get involved!

Warm Regards,
Rhonda Young, RMA, AHI (AMT)
FLSSAMT President 

Editor's Message

Hello FLSSAMT

As I attended the 2025 AMT National Meeting in Pittsburgh, one presentation resonated with me. Though the title was Healing Healthcare, the lesson was on Empathy. There is truly much that can be healed by the true act of empathy. A coworker may have a sick child, car trouble, or a disagreement at home, yet they made every effort to come into the office, knowing the staffing is short. An angry patient may have had the worst week of their life. Their feelings of helplessness and dismay spill over onto their healthcare team with anger. In my case, working in an Infertility clinic as an ART Coordinator, by the time patients have tried everything in their ability to achieve pregnancy, they are referred to my department for IVF. They are dealing with a mixture of emotions: hope, disappointment, inadequacy, guilt, fear, and more. Our team, as hard as they may try to be helpful, is the recipient of those conflicting emotions, and it is sometimes overwhelming, off-putting, and hurtful. We try to remember our patients are questioning their worth, their relationships are strained under the pressure to achieve their dream, and they are feeling a lack of control over their lives. That comes out as being demanding, obsessed, angry, and searching out “real” answers from the expert Dr. Google, giving themselves a feeling of (desperately needed) control. I am happy to say, mostly -we manage to empathize, recognize it is not us, but the frustrations they are feeling. We hang up and have a mini session between us to express our frustrations about how we were treated and feelings of inadequacy to “make it better.” But when the patient’s journey is over, either by achieving pregnancy or by their own choice to move on, the notes of appreciation for our empathy and support are healing. We may not see the results of a caring RMA, a compassionate Phlebotomist, a receptionist with a kind word, a billing specialist who understands the financial strain, or a lab tech who goes out of their way to prioritize those impactful BHCGs - until down the road. But later, sometimes much later, many times we do hear it in a Christmas card, or a call after that precious baby is born, or a note from a now cancer free patient ready to use their oocytes that have been quietly guarded in cryo tanks by our embryology team, or a simple thank you note from a patient who chose another path……

In your capacities in your clinic, hospital, or office, know you DO make a difference-in even one simple show of empathy, you may have changed a life for the better. As I told a despondent patient whose results were not what we hoped to see – “your story is not over”, neither are our stories over. We keep helping, keep healing, telling ourselves we have done the best we can. If we fall short of our best, remember we are human and will remind ourselves to do better next time.

Kathleene Hardy, RMA (AMT)
FLSSAMT VP and Online Communications Chair