Meet Nick P.

Nicki P. has been an MA for 20 years.  She graduated in 2004 with an Associates Degree in Applied Sciences, and then received her certification from the AAMA - American Association of Medical Assistants. She started her career in cardiology, then was with a family medicine practice. Nicki then came to Medsien just about 3 years ago, this summer. One cool thing is that she lives in the mountains of Arkansas. But that also made her commute rough - even to her last clinic which was in Clarkestown, AR - the closest town - still required a rough and long commute through the mountains. After the long days and rough commutes she decided that remote work sounded really nice, and she quickly found Medsien on indeed.com - where she could work as an MA remotely. She had an immediate connection during her initial call with the Medsien staff nurse manager, and was really touched by the 3 core values listed on the Medsien website  (Trust, Harmony & Empathy). Those values really spoke to her. It just seemed like a great match and allowed her to continue the work she loves with a company she believed in - with the flexibility of working from home. She started right away. 

Benefits and challenges of remote work and working at Medsien

The best thing about working remotely for Nicki is the work-life balance she has.  She says the job is amazing and she’s not losing time with her family. For Nicki, the best part of working for Medsien is their core values, and that they really put them into practice. Also, she feels at Medsien they treat you like a person - like a friend or family member. She says that your thoughts and input really matter here - they ask your opinion and really want to improve. You get to feel valued and really important. That’s very unique. 

When I asked Nicki about any challenges of working remotely, she shared two important points.  It can be hard to build and maintain trust with the patients - at first.  With some patients, you have to take the time to build trust and get past their initial discomfort. She notes that you’re dealing with mostly elderly patients - and it’s not the same world they grew up in. There’s so much fraud now as well, and sometimes when you first call them, they don’t want to talk to you or do the program, because (understandably), they don’t know if they can trust you, or that you’re even who you say you are. It’s hardest to establish trust and to establish a relationship in the beginning or until they really believe that you’re offering this program and care. But it’s totally surmountable - Nicki says that once they get past that and know her, Care Partners are able to establish a deep connection - and often a friendship with their patients.  

Another challenge to remote work for some might be time management.  This is not at all a problem for Nicki. She’s good at it, and remote work works perfectly for her.

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Favorite thing about working for Medsien - the relationship with patients

For Nicki, it’s the relationship she has with the patients, and helping them. Gaining trust, having empathy and truly being able to help someone makes the job great. Showing compassion and being available to the patients when they most need it feels really wonderful. 

She says It’s key to build that relationship between Care Partners and patients. Most of the time it’s built after the first phone call, but sometimes it can take several months to really secure the relationship. Sometimes the grumpiest, hardest to deal with patients - once the trust is built -  become the closest relationships. One of Nicki's initially grumpiest, hardest to break through with patients, took three months of care management to really connect. Now that woman tells Nicki that she loves her at the end of all their calls. She knows that when the patients take your call, they are letting you know that they know they can trust you. 

Nicki ends every call with “if you can’t get a hold of the clinic, you can always call me”. Her patients often don’t want to use mychart, and/or often can’t reach the clinic, so being able to offer patients that option can be really important. She said “I want them to know that they can always reach me, and I can help.”  

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Working as a MA

Nicki mentioned that in clinic settings, MAs typically are undervalued - overworked, undervalued and poorly paid.  Also, working in the clinic was hard. In addition to the long commute, there were long, almost 12 hour workdays. She felt overworked, underpaid and underappreciated.  None of this happens at Medsien. At Medsien, Nicki feels the MAs are valued and respected, make a good living and have work-life balance. 

Final thoughts and things to know about Nicki

Nicki loves the outdoors. She loves being in nature and living in the mountains. She’d have her home office outside with the chickens and the cows if they weren’t so loud. Another perk of remote work, and living in the beauty of the Ozark mountains and being near the mountains and water, is she can take a brief break and just go outside her door into the beautiful outdoors every day. 

For Nicki, a special part of being a Medsien Care Partner is developing relationships and friendships with the patients, and knowing you are really helping them. At Medsien, she gets to use her clinical expertise and really help people. And, she has a work-life balance now that was no longer possible for her in clinic based work. She feels so happy to have this job - to be remote, to have work-life balance, decent pay, to be valued, to have time with family and to really be able to help patients. 

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