PUHI — Rizel Joy Edmalin made a special trip from Maui to attend the Kaua‘i Community College (KCC) Medical Assistant Pinning ceremony on Wednesday at the KCC Office of Continuing Education and Training conference room.
“Rizel, who is from Maui, is the 13th student in the 2024 cohort,” said Victoria Mathis, the Kaua‘i Community College Medical Assistant Program lead. “The other 12 students are from Kaua‘i.”
Mathis said having Rizel in the cohort demonstrated how special the class was because the dozen Kaua‘i residents embraced the Maui student despite Rizel spending most of her time in the program through Zoom.
The Pinning Ceremony marks the successful completion of the Medical Assistant program, and the pin the graduates received is their badge.
“Please hire me,” said John Daryll Nostares, one of two male students. “We spent a lot to get here; Starbucks should be a sponsor for all the coffee and drinks we had while studying.”
Mathis said in the 13 years following the start of the program at the KCC, there have been more than 100 students who have graduated.
“Most of them are working here on Kaua‘i,” Mathis said. “We have two students that have already been hired. Most of them have had their interviews, and starting next week we’ll start seeing the job offers.”
She said despite adding medical assistants to the health care pool, Kaua‘i is still short on medical assistants. The situation is worse on O‘ahu and some of the other islands.
Nicki Domingo, one of the new medical assistants, said a nurse is oriented toward basic care, while a medical assistant is more oriented toward the clinical aspect of making sure appointments are done correctly and keeping the office moving smoothly.
The latest medical assistants are Marvin Agbayani, Chelsea Nicole Aguinaldo, Kelly Blackstad, Kathleen Cabudsan, Shaina Grace Delos Santos, Nicki Domingo, Fhebby Kate Dumayas, Rizel Joy Edmalin, Angelica Gano, Rebecca Harsley, Shya Kamalei Ka‘auwai, John Daryll Nostares and Nadja Saraos.
