Bristol News
Campus News & Events
Spotlight on Success
Michelle Louthian (office manager, right) and Lori Gregory (medical assistant, left) are both graduates of National’s Bristol Campus who work at a small medical clinic in Abingdon, Virginia. Michelle graduated in 2001 with a medical coding & billing diploma, while Lori received her associate degree in medical assisting 2006. Both enjoy working in the family-like environment of a small medical clinic.
“Oh goodness,” exclaimed Lori when asked to describe her typical responsibilities. “I do so much!” From filing charts, setting appointments, answering phones, assisting the doctors and nurse practitioners, catheterizing patients, assisting with inpatient surgical procedures, and calling in prescriptions, no two days are the same.
“I like meeting new people…I like helping with the procedures…I like helping up here with Michelle, too…,” she says. “It’s something I think everyone needs to experience.”
Interested in the medical field since she was just nine years old, Lori heard about National’s medical assisting program one day and decided to check it out. Soon thereafter she was taking classes.
“If someone will just give you that chance, it’s amazing what you can do.”
Michelle’s start wasn’t quite as smooth. “I went once, and backed out, I got scared,” she admits. But then one day she casually told her husband she was going to the campus to look into the program. The very next day she was sitting in class! But she has never looked back.
“It’s taken me down a lot of good roads,” she says of her decision to enroll. “Every month I pay my bill for my financial assistance, and I never have a problem writing that check, never,” she continues. “I never think of it as a bill, I think of it as my education.”
Both women find their careers rewarding, and their positive educational experience has them thinking of the future and possible additional schooling. Michelle admits she is still apprehensive about returning to school, but is buoyed by knowing what she is capable of from her experience at National. “If someone will just give you that chance, it’s amazing what you can do.”
