For Laura Wynohrad, R.T.(R)(MR) (RAD ’93), her introduction to radiography was love at first sight.

She had initially entered her freshman year of college as a business major, but felt that it wasn’t the right fit. Wynohrad wanted to work in the medical field, but didn’t know where to start, as she didn’t want to be a nurse or doctor.

One call to her local hospital and a tour of its facilities later, Wynohrad found her missing piece.

“I don’t remember any of the other departments, but when I saw the radiology department, I was instantly attracted to it!” Wynohrad says. “I thought it was so cool to see the bones — back then it was all X-ray films — hanging up on the view boxes. I liked the mix of technology and patient care, and I’ve loved this career ever since.”

Wynohrad began working at Mayo Clinic while enrolled in the radiography program as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) at Methodist Hospital. Once she graduated from the program in 1993, Wynohrad was hired as a staff technologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where she stayed until moving to Boston a few years later.

“I loved that I got the best training and experience to be the best X-ray tech I could be from my experience at Mayo, and then I used that and also developed lots of other skills from other jobs along the way,” Wynohrad says. “I feel like I have a very well-rounded experience.”

Since then, Wynohrad’s life and career have taken her from Boston to Minneapolis and back to her hometown in Iowa, where she has been for the past 22 years. During this time, Wynohrad kept an eye on openings at Mayo Clinic, hoping to return to the place where it all began. That hope soon came in the form of a part-time position as a radiologic technologist in the MRI department at Saint Marys.

“I work the overnight shift at Saint Marys every Wednesday and Thursday,” Wynohrad explains. “It’s actually a perfect match for me at this point in my life. I think it would be really hard to do overnights with kids at home, but our nest is empty now, so it’s actually a great time to make the change.”

Wynohrad also says that her first day of orientation back at Mayo Clinic was emotional. She recognized Phillips Hall as the exact room she had graduated in 32 years ago, almost to the day. Wynohrad also recognized the Mayo Clinic Values as they were taught, because she had lived them. And she had the opportunity to reconnect with her former colleagues in the place she has always loved.

In addition to reconnecting with past colleagues, Wynohrad has enjoyed working with colleagues just starting out in their careers, as she sees herself in many of them, while learning from them at the same time.

“Working with people much younger than me keeps me on my toes. The life experiences that they are dealing with are things that I lived through many years ago. And I’m doing MRI, which I became certified to do back in 1999 when I was living in Boston but have not had the opportunity to work in much over the years,” Wynohrad says. “So even though some of my co-workers are much younger than me, I still learn a lot from them about my job all the time. But it’s crazy to think about how much healthcare and radiology have changed since I graduated. The basics are the same, but most of what our job entails is completely different than how things were when I started.”

Now that Wynohrad works night shifts, the pace is much different than the pace in her previous roles. She says she always has something to do, but her schedule isn’t overwhelming. This shift in pace also allows her to spend more time with her patients, especially when trying to make them as comfortable as possible during their long MRI exams.

Wynohrad also says that she loves that she is never alone at Mayo Clinic. Nursing staff stay with patients that need to be monitored so that she and her colleagues can focus on getting the best images possible during scans. Radiologists also support the technologists at Mayo, which isn’t always the case at other institutions. Wynohrad loves the teamwork that thrives within Mayo to care for each patient.

“At Mayo, we have the resources to make sure that the needs of the patient are the priority. Sometimes that’s in the form of safety protocols; sometimes it’s providing anesthesia for a patient that otherwise would not be able to complete the exam; and sometimes it’s volunteering to be study participant to help improve our scanning protocols,” Wynohrad says. “It’s easy to overlook all of the pieces that make up the Mayo puzzle, but from my perspective, it’s clear that the needs of the patient always come first here.”

Just as Wynohrad has made the most out of her time at Mayo Clinic, both in the past and present, she encourages Mayo Clinic students to do the same by appreciating the experience and staying as long as they can.

“All jobs have good and bad and there is no such thing as the ‘perfect job.’ But the things that you see here, you will never have the chance to see anywhere else,” Wynohrad says. “Recognize that you are privileged to work at the ‘world famous Mayo Clinic,’ and no matter where you go after this, people will always be impressed when you tell them that you worked here.”