For years, Kerri N. spent her days working as a stay-at-home mom. While she loved her profession, she says her career really started at Pima Medical Institute.

Making the leap from full-time mom to full-time medical professional was daunting, but when Kerri's youngest of three children began his first day in kindergarten, she knew she had to add something to her life.
“I needed to get out of the house,” Kerri said. “I just couldn’t stay at home by myself when my youngest started school.”

She began to think about careers. She’d always had a desire to learn medicine, she said, but it was something she had never pursued. After seeing an advertisement on TV for the Albuquerque campus of Pima Medical Institute, she decided to give her hunch a shot.

During her entrance interview, she knew Pima Medical Institute was different.
“I immediately liked the atmosphere,” she said. “The staff really impressed me.”

Once Kerri started attending Pima, she discovered her initial impression of the school and its people was right on, and PMI was exactly what she was looking for.
“I’m a pretty happy person, and I like being around happy people. Everyone at Pima – the instructors and the entire staff – always had a healthy, positive attitude.”

Kerri enrolled in the Medical Assistant certificate program in 2001. Of the eight certificates available at the Albuquerque campus, she chose this particular program because she considers herself a people person and she wanted to help others.

In July 2002, just two weeks before graduation, she accepted a job at the a heart hospital in New Mexico. Today she works at a hospital as a Patient Care Provider where she’s utilizing all the skills and knowledge she learned at Pima.
“Pima prepares you well for this field,” she said. “Everything I’m doing now, Pima trained me for.”

Kerri works a condensed schedule of 12-hour workdays, four days a week. She admits that her schedule can be demanding, but she enjoys her new career. This satisfaction makes the challenging hours worth it all.
“I have a good job,” she said. “I love what I do, and I’m thankful for the path I chose.”

Kerri plans to stay with the hospital and continue to advance her career.
“I want to eventually manage a doctor’s office,” she said. “That’s the goal that I’ve set for myself.”

When all of her kids left for school, Keri traded her home office for a doctor’s office, her children’s play toys for medical tools. She knew she was interested in the medical field, and was certain she wanted to work with people. Today, she’s doing both thanks to Pima Medical Institute.
“My career began at Pima,” she said. “Given the opportunity, I’d do it all over again.”