Funding To Expand Innovative Talent Initiatives Across Colorado
The National Institute for Medical Assistant Advancement (NIMAA) is pleased to announce the receipt of a $50,000 grant from the Opportunity Now Colorado Grant Program to support making NIMAA’s medical assistant training program more accessible to prospective students and clinical partners in rural communities.
Opportunity Now Colorado was developed by Governor Jared Polis and legislators as a regional talent development initiative to fund new and proven programs that connect Coloradans to in-demand, high-skill, and high-wage occupations.
The Opportunity Now funding will help NIMAA engage with prospective industry partners, and partners who have suspended program participation, to help NIMAA better understand how to modify the program to better align with their operational needs. It will also allow NIMAA to examine the program structure and curriculum modifications required for alternative models.
NIMAA’s accredited Medical Assistant Training program was founded in 2016 by two leading community health centers, Community Health Center, Inc. in Connecticut and Salud Family Health in Colorado. NIMAA prepares graduates to work in high-performing, team-based practices by combining online learning with extensive hands-on externship experience in partner primary care clinics across Colorado and the U.S., particularly those who care for underserved populations with complex care needs. NIMAA’s unique online delivery model reduces barriers to program entry, allowing student enrollment from any community where NIMAA has a clinical partner and allows students to complete their online work at any time or location that is convenient for them.
NIMAA CEO Elena Thomas Faulkner stated, “NIMAA is delighted with the opportunity this funding provides to better understand the challenges of our externship partners in rural Colorado. We hear from our partners that they love NIMAA’s instructional approach, content and rigor, but have limited resources to support clinical experiences for students. This funding will allow us to explore delivery models that preserve key components of our model, and are more sustainable for small and rural practices.”