Health Careers: Offered at Porterville Adult School

Maria Panuco of Porterville was more than willing to give up her right arm for a classmate Wednesday.

Without flinching, Panuco sat perfectly still, her right arm resting on the chair’s arm rest as Eva Torres, 20, cleaned the antecubital area, secured a tourniquet around the arm and after using her finger to palpitate a vein, punctured it with a 21-guage needle, aspirating dark red blood into a small tube.

Panuco and Torres are both third-term students in the Medical Assistant program at Porterville Adult School.

The 30-week course — the Medical Assistant, front and back office, program — combines clinical medical practices with the latest in office skills.

“We run all year long. We have three terms of 10-weeks each but a new class starts every 10 weeks,” said Danette Eskridge, medical assistant and phlebotomy instructor.

At the start of the course, the students concentrate on basic and general office skills, including business communication, keyboarding and computer, word processing, data entry, business math, calculator skills, and working on clerical and customer-service skills.

In addition, all of the students attend a medical terminology class every Monday, take an anatomy and physiology class, and work on medical coding, medical billing and medical insurance prep.

“It’s very extensive — thorough,” said Deborah Dodd, career technology education coordinator. “When finished, they will be prepared to take state certification to be a certified medical assistant.”

And as a medical assistant with a phlebotomy certificate, the students have opportunities at a variety of careers, including working at doctors’ offices, drawing stations, and at hospitals as unit clerks or emergency-room technicians, she said — an ideal program for students who want to get started in a health career.

“With this certificate, they can make money while continuing to pursue their LVN — license vocational nurse — license,” Dodd said. “It’s a foot in the door.”

Torres is one such student. She said she plans to work as a medical assistant and phlebotomist and return to school for her LVN.

Panuco, on the other hand, said she has 20 years of office experience, six of them in medical clerical, and because she is bilingual, said she feels she has several options to choose from when looking for a job. But prior to that, she will spend time in a doctors’ office as part of her externship.

“They spend a week job shadowing at a doctors’ office in town,” Eskridge said. “Originally they were there just to observe, the doctors have been very nice and allow our students to get some hands-on experience with the patients.”

Another positive aspect of the course is that the program partners with Sierra View District Hospital, which opens their doors and allows the students to do their clinical work there, Dodd said.

“The experience is invaluable,” Dodd said. “A lot of our students can’t afford college or the drive to Visalia. It’s nice to have it here.”

Students either pay for the course themselves or use grants or other programs — Workforce Investment Board, Cal Works, and private and state rehab agencies — to help pay for the program.

“It’s amazing how hard they work. The main concern most of them have is returning to school,” Dodd said. “This is a good short-term training, especially in the medical field, program and we are here to help. The way the economy is, it’s hard for people to get work and here, the doctors like our students and are always willing to help. We are very fortunate.”

Aside from the medical assistant program, the school also offers a phlebotomy — blood drawing — evening course.

“A phlebotomist is an important member of the health care team who draws blood for various laboratory tests,” said Eskridge, who also teaches the phlebotomy course. “Trained, qualified, certified phlebotomists are always in demand.”

The program offers students the opportunity to learn proper techniques and perform venipuncture, basic laboratory tests, tourniquet application, obtain specimens by venipuncture and capillary puncture, utilize syringes and needle systems, learn the vacutainer system and proper methods and use of equipment.

The phlebotomy course runs for 100 hours — 60 in class and 40 clinical laboratory training hours.

Following the successful completion of both sections, the trainees are prepared to take the State Certification Exam and become a licensed Phlebotomy Technician 1. Classes are offered in the fall and spring semesters, beginning Sept. 21 and Feb. 1.

Porterville Adult School Director Fernando Carrera praised the instructors of the program.
Dodd has been teaching for 29 years, 27 of them at the adult school, and Eskridge has been teaching phlebotomy at the school since 2003.

“They’re great, dedicated teachers. I have always heard nothing but good things about our programs,” Carrera said. “I’m pleased to know that if you test the quality and success of something by how well the students do — then we’re doing great. Our students are getting placed — that makes it a successful program. And the program itself is great, always filling up.”

For more information on the Medical Assistant and the Phlebotomy classes, call Porterville Adult School at 793-7030.

Contact Esther Avila at 784-5000, Ext. 1045, or eavila@portervillerecorder.com.