2016 Health Care Champions Technician: James Braun

James Braun embraces a philosophy of kindness and community that surfaces in his work.

“To be treated with love and compassion often helps the healing process as much as the treatment,” he says.

Retiring last month, the medical technologist spent the bulk of his 35-year medical career at Mercy, with the first 24 years at the Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City, Iowa, and the past five years at Mercy Clinic Nixa.

In between tours with Mercy, he spent six years of his career at Doctors Hospital, where he was promoted to supervisor of the blood bank and hematology.

“When I was supervisor in Doctors Hospital, I always told my co-workers that everybody is doing the best that they can do. If they’re not, then we need to help them. Most people want to do a really good job,” he says. “I really believe it.”

He left Doctors Hospital in 2008, when he and his wife felt called by their Baha’i faith to teach in China. He taught medical English to students and graduate students in Tianjin for three years before returning to the Ozarks.  

“It was so nice, being in a classroom. Some of my students were so eager to learn and wanted so much to study in the United States,” he says.

Some did come and study medicine in the states and made stops in Missouri to visit Braun and his wife.

“I’ve had a lot of exposure to a lot of ideas that have helped me in my interpersonal relationships,” he says. “I’ve always been able to look for the good in other people and find it.”

When at the clinic, Braun viewed himself as a cog in a very big wheel – seeing his work as a contribution to the overall care of patients and functioning of the organization.

“A positive workplace makes everyone more willing to do their job well,” he says.

He likes that his former supervisor called him a mentor. He enjoys seeing people acquire skills that will make them better at their occupations.

“To develop an attitude of learning in all our endeavors helps us to become able to ask questions when we don’t know something. And help provide answers when we have some piece of knowledge that someone else lacks,” he says.

While Braun is proud of his developed testing skills and the ability to troubleshoot equipment in the laboratory, he is most proud of interactions with his colleagues over the years.

“I am proudest of the relationships that I built working with others to build their laboratories and improve their abilities,” he says. “I feel that not only did I help them progress but I progressed more because of those relationships.”

He says the years changed his approach to work. In the beginning, he wanted to learn everything possible about working in the lab. In 1990, he specialized when he became an outreach tech for physician office laboratories. While he didn’t mind the work, people have been his major motivations.

He plans on embracing his retirement years with amateur photography in foreign lands.

Braun says he has the travel bug and not only plans to visit Jerusalem but also former students and old friends in China. He plans to visit one family in particular, the family who introduced him to his first Chinese New Year.

“It would be good to see all of those people again,” he says.