BRATTLEBORO — Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and Community College of Vermont recently celebrated the third class of graduating Medical Assistants from the College to Career certification program developed between BMH and CCV.
Addressing a room of new graduates at the hospital, CCV President Joyce Judy asked the group to reflect on how they had felt 14 weeks ago upon entering their training program.
The responses echoed each other: “nervous,” said some; “overwhelmed,” replied others.
When Judy then asked them to describe their feelings upon graduating, the responses were similarly consistent: confident proclamations of “excited,” and “grateful,” were met all around with nods and smiles.
“Each year of CCV's partnership with BMH, I have seen the benefits for our students and for the community. This year's group has been highly motivated to move into a career that allows them to serve the community and their families in a new way,” Leigh Marthe, coordinator of academic services in Brattleboro, said in a news release.
As part of the joint initiative, BMH provides full scholarships for eight applicants to the program. Scholarship recipients have their CCV tuition waived and receive supervised clinical practice at BMH.
Upon graduation from the academic portion of the program at CCV, students are enrolled in an extensive training program at BMH led by a registered nurse to enable them to work independently as an MA.
“This program is a real asset to our hospital,” said Eilidh Pederson, BMH vice president of medical group management and population health. “The investment we make in training each new class of MAs helps us to deliver high quality care to our patients and strengthens the health of our community by providing education and employment opportunities to local people.”