SAN MARCOS: Free medical assistant training opens door to health careers

North County Health Services sponsors course for employees, community members

By DEBORAH SULLIVAN BRENNAN - dbrennan@nctimes.com | Posted: Sunday, July 4, 2010 6:44 pm

Elena Sandoval was expecting a baby and working long hours at Sam's Club last fall when she learned about a free medical assistant training program offered by North County Health Services.

Although her due date fell midway through the course, she knew it was a chance she couldn't decline.

"I just told myself, 'This opportunity is never going to come again,'" said Sandoval, 21, of Vista. "Plus, it's a better life for my family."

Sandoval completed classwork for the nearly yearlong program with 52 other students this summer, after giving birth during spring break and returning without interruption the following week.

Her class is the second for the program, which aims to help fill the region's health care needs while offering an economic opening to students who couldn't afford similar commercial courses.

Twenty-six students graduated in the first class.

Medical assistants complement the work of nurses and doctors by taking patients' vital signs and measurements, doing vision and hearing testing, filling out specialist referrals and providing medication instructions.

Private training programs typically cost thousands of dollars.

While California colleges and universities are raising fees to close budget gaps, NCHS' medical assistant training program covers the cost of tuition, books, equipment and even services such as child care and transportation.

Students typically include community members and clerical employees from the health services' clinics, as well as Vista Community Clinic and Neighborhood Healthcare in Escondido.

"We want to take folks who are already living and working in the area and give them a chance to advance themselves in a career," said Lynn Graykowski, director of human resources for Neighborhood Healthcare.

Operating under a $900,000, three-year grant from the San Diego Workforce Funders Collaborative, the program offers a choice of weeknight or Saturday sessions geared toward the schedules of full-time workers.

"That gives individuals the opportunity to seek employment, put food on the table, plus get an education without getting student loans," said Eloisa Orozco, special programs director for North County Health Services, which runs community clinics in San Marcos, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Oceanside and Ramona.

"Students who participate in this program do not put their lives on hold," Orozco said.

Perfect timing

The program came at a hectic ---- but opportune ---- time for Sandoval.

Attending a prenatal appointment at the NCHS clinic in San Marcos, she confided to her counselor that she had been enrolled in a private medical assistant training course before dropping out because it was too expensive.

The counselor gave her an application for the free program.

"She said, 'Maybe you'll have luck and you'll get an interview,'" Sandoval said.

She started the program in November, when she was four months' pregnant, juggling shifts at Sam's Club with the Saturday classes and weekly homework assignments.

In December, she had to move, and in January, she lost her job when Sam's Club closed.

As her due date approached, she told classmates that she hoped to have her baby over spring break, the only time when the birth would not conflict with her class schedule.

Although he wasn't due until May 3, she delivered her son, Ivan, during spring break on April 23 and returned to school eight days later while Ivan's father watched him.

"It was tough, but it wasn't that bad," she said. "It was tiring and stressful, because the baby was awake. I came home and had homework to do and had to study for a test."

Last month, Sandoval took her final exams ---- a written test and simulated clinical exam ---- and is completing the required 120-hour internship with Cassidy Medical Group in Oceanside this month.

She hopes to work in a pediatrics practice and set an example for her son's future education.

"I think that's going to make him see that anything's possible," she said. "There's great opportunities out there, if he tries really hard."

Tragic loss

While Sandoval managed the birth of her first baby during the course, classmate Vicki Gonzalez dealt with the loss of a child to cancer.

Gonzalez, 21, was attending Palomar College when her 2-year-old son, Johnathan, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a rare nerve cell cancer that occurs in young children.

She quit her job and classes to manage her son's treatment ---- a course of chemotherapy followed by two bone marrow treatments ---- while caring for her baby daughter, Isabella, as well.

When she learned about the free training program, she decided it would help her handle her son's illness without interrupting his visits to the doctor.

Johnathan's father had lost his job, she said, so although money was tight, he was able to help care for their children while she attended class.

"What inspired me to follow this was my son, and going through his medical needs with him," said Gonzalez, of San Marcos. "I was really excited and happy that they accepted me, knowing what I was going through."

Although her son made it through chemotherapy with minimal side effects, his condition was serious.

He had large tumors, and his cancer was classified as stage IV, meaning it had spread to other parts of his body, she said.

She said she remained optimistic about his prospects, though.

"At first I was really confident that he was going to make it," she said. "That's just me. During hard times, I try to stay positive all the time."

Focusing on her classwork, she tried to learn about her son's illness and treatment.

"I just thought this would help me understand better what's going with my son," she said.

A surgery to remove a tumor from her son's liver failed, and he died in February.

Sandoval persisted in her studies, but said she struggled as the course covered subject matter such as tumors, MRIs and catheterizations.

"Everything that he had gone through, it just took me back to that," she said.

Nonetheless, she resolved to continue her studies, knowing her daughter depended on her.

"She was the reason for me to keep going," she said.

North County Health Services CEO Irma Cota said the program aims not only to train medical assistants but to open the health care field to students who may continue into nursing.

"We currently have a nursing shortage, and we will continue to have a nursing shortage unless we get more individuals interested in this profession," she said.

Gonzalez said her son's illness led her in that direction.

She plans to return to Palomar College to study nursing, knowing that her professional training and personal experience leave her well positioned to serve patients.

"I wanted to be that person, that nurse or the doctor, and help kids that are sick," she said.

For more information, call North County Health Services at 760-736-6767.

Call staff writer Deborah Sullivan Brennan at 760-740-5420