When the fall semester ends Dec. 9, Santa Fe Community College student Nissim Mesznik will receive his associate’s degree in medical assisting with the help of an accelerated version of the program, which replaced its more drawn-out predecessor this fall.
“It’s fast-paced, and we do start sooner than other people start their semester. It is very condensed, and you have to learn a lot very quickly,” Mesznik says of the program. “As long as you have the mind for it, I think it’s very achievable. I like it personally, because it’s less time you have to spend in school, less time waiting to finally go into the field you want.”
Reymundo G. Holguin, talent acquisition and human resources manager at Christus St. Vincent, says the organization’s partnership with SFCC has helped to fill vacant medical assistant positions as demand for staff grows amid New Mexico’s well-documented shortage of health care workers. In fact, students get to work before they even earn the degree. Two of the SFCC program cohort of 12 students are completing a practicum at Christus.
“I think that’s what’s going to help us be very successful—obtaining these students from the community college,” Holguin says. “We can go ahead and hire them, they complete 80 hours with us, and it’s paid hours.”
Holguin tells SFR his seven-person recruitment team has been struggling to fill vacant positions in the Christus facilities since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“That’s when our recruitment changed totally,” Holguin says. “We’ve had to look at pay and the way we’re structuring that, the benefits we’re offering, incentives—making it a great package so it entices them.”
According to a 2022 study by the University of New Mexico, about 885 medical assistants worked in the state last year, compared to the state’s calculated need of 952 medical assistants. At the local level, Santa Fe County’s population of 155,201 estimates that 70 medical assistants are needed in the area—seven more positions than the county had at the time. Nationwide, employment of medical assistants is also projected to grow 14% between 2022 and 2032, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Students in SFCC’s medical assisting program take courses in clinical, laboratory and administrative procedures as well as professional development, and the program prepares them to not only take the National Certification Exam, but also to work as an entry-level medical assistant in doctor’s offices, walk-in clinics, ambulatory centers and specialized areas in hospitals.
Originally, the medical assisting program was a three-semester effort for its students, but the accelerated version introduced this year condenses the eight classes required within the program into 18 weeks—or one semester, divided into three “blocks.” A certificate for medical assisting is embedded in the associate degree graduating students receive.
Jessica Balladares, who directs SFCC’s medical assisting, phlebotomy and community health worker programs, tells SFR the required practicum in a doctor’s office or hospital serves as a critical component of the curriculum.
“[In class,] we touch on all body systems, every type of medical specialty—family medicine, pediatric, ophthalmology, dermatology, gastroenterology,” Balladares says. “With that, they get to do their clinical time. So, they’re getting hands-on experience, utilizing what they learned in the classroom in the field.”
The accelerated program requires students to complete 160 hours of clinical work, with the first 80 hours completed in the first 14 weeks and the final 80 hours coming from the last four weeks. Balladares says the school works with clinical partners to help students choose where they will complete their practicum and to transition from students to employees by the end of the semester.
Whereas the former three-semester program was only offered in the fall, now, its students can also begin in the spring semester.
“Medical assistants are very much needed in the health care system, just like other positions,” Balladares explains. “Being able to have students graduate twice a year helps our clinical partners start getting [students] qualified and hired throughout the year.”
Christus St. Vincent has also already made progress in filling a gap in medical assistants with other strategies. Holguin says at one point this year, Christus’s 27 Santa Fe clinics had 30 vacant medical assistant positions. Currently, 10 remain open.
“It’s just so competitive now,” Holguin says, “that we have to look at new ways to try and entice them, get our own associates into programs so they can advance and become medical assistants, or work up to become an RN or another position.”