Just 30 more times drawing blood, and Reagan Wilder will qualify as a certified medical assistant.
Reagan, a new medical assistant at Mountain Hope Good Shepherd Clinic, began her quest to become certified in 2008. Before that, she was a stay-at-home mom. She is really close to her certification — just 30 needle-sticks shy — and expects to complete it during the upcoming health fair at the Clinic.
As a part-time medical assistant, she takes patients’ vital signs, performs in-office lab tests, helps with charting and assists the Clinic’s doctors and nurse practitioners as they attend to patients. Though medical assistants do not have to be certified to practice in Tennessee, certification shows more dedication to education and professional standards, she said.
She grew up in Seymour, attended Seymour High School and transferred to Heritage High in Blount County. She and her husband, Edgar, live in Seymour with their children, two boys and two girls: Matthew, 11; Genesis, 8; Mychal, 5, and Mysty, 4.
Her family does not leave much time for relaxing, but if she had time she is clear about what she would like to do: “Go to the mountains. Find a creek,” she said.
She said she was attracted to working at the Clinic because of “the group of people they reach out to, and the Clinic’s passion for what they do.”