Meet Sol Santana and Jazzmin Iglesias, Neighborhood Health Center’s newest medical assistants and the inaugural class of Neighborhood’s new Medical Assistant Training Program. 

Prior to the program, Sol and Jazzmin were patient service representatives (PSR) for Neighborhood. PSRs are the first and last points of contact for visitors. They have the crucial role of checking patients in and out, assisting with scheduling and rescheduling appointments, inputting insurance information, and managing any forms that need to be filled out. PSRs often grow into other roles at Neighborhood.

With the ever-growing shortage of nursing staff across the country, Neighborhood Health Center decided to develop their own. To lead this effort, Neighborhood has rolled-out a new Medical Assistant Training Program. The three-week program consists of in-classroom instruction, coursework, clinical shadowing on site, and onboarding. Program instructors are Neighborhood’s own Tiffany Korn, Project Manager, and Terria Shine, LPN Supervisor. Terria was selected by Neighborhood nursing leadership to help develop and lead this program. 

Having recently been accepted into the LPN degree program at Trocaire College, Jazzmin felt that this training would be beneficial for her to become more familiar with the medical field and how Neighborhood in particular works with patients. She explained that the skills she learned while training to be a medical assistant are an important step to becoming an LPN.

“I personally am a kinesthetic learner so being able to participate in skills such as A1Cs, Glucose, UAs and vitals were exciting to me. It also helped me to understand these orders and what they do for our patients as far as bettering their health,” said Jazzmin. 

Neighborhood’s mission is to offer impactful healthcare, provided by kind people, so Western New Yorkers can achieve their dreams and goals. Key to this mission is developing career paths at Neighborhood for its kind employees, so they can grow and be supported in achieving what they are passionate about.

"After successful completion of the program all participants will become a Medical Assistant Tier I, with the opportunity to advance to other tiers through the medical assistant tiering system," said Terria.

Neighborhood was able to create the Medical Assistant Training Program thanks to a $300,000 grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation. Since the Cabrini Foundation’s inception in 2018, it has awarded nearly $635 million to a variety of organizations to fund programs and initiatives to meet the evolving needs of New Yorkers.

“The program gives you an opportunity to grow within the company and understand what [medical assistants] do, which is more than just rooming patients. We get to work closely with our patients and connect with them,” said Jazzmin. 

“We are thankful for the Cabrini Foundation’s support,” said Neighborhood Health Center President and CEO Joanne Haefner. “We love our employees and we’re thrilled to be able to offer this new opportunity for career growth at Neighborhood.”