Meet Olivia Poste – Bryan U Clinical Medical Assistant Undergraduate Certificate Graduate

Olivia Poste recently graduated from Bryan University’s Clinical Medical Assistant Undergraduate Certificate. Olivia was always interested in medicine, but as an animal lover, she began her studies in veterinary medicine. During her vet tech studies, Olivia became pregnant with her son and faced many complications. When her son was born premature and spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), her medical focus shifted from animals to humans. 

“During that two-week stay in the NICU, it shifted for me. The nurses were like angels; one specific nurse was so inspiring, and I realized that I wanted to be that person for somebody.” 

Once Olivia’s son was home, she began looking into medical assistant programs to enroll in. She found BU and worked with an admissions advisor to enroll; when she reached out to BU, she was two weeks out from the next start date, but with admissions diligence, she could begin immediately. “My admissions advisor was perfect; she did everything quickly so I could start right away. All the staff are so nice.” 

Olivia chose BU because she was looking for a flexible and accelerated program; she found her passion and wanted to start as quickly as possible. With a new baby, Olivia wanted flexibility and knew attending a full-time program wouldn’t be an option. One of the highlights of attending BU was completing her work on her own time. 

Once Olivia began her program, she loved everything from the instructors to the program layout and material. As a new mom, she especially appreciated her instructor’s caring and flexible approach. “I appreciated that my instructors were flexible and so encouraging. I had a point where I had some things going on, and I fell a bit behind; my instructors were available to help me work on extensions so I could get caught up and back on track.” Many of her instructors applied real-world knowledge to the classroom. Olivia felt the work was challenging but never more than she could handle. 

With medical assisting being a truly hands-on career, Olivia shared how her online program helped prepare her for her first day at work. She enjoyed working with the phlebotomy dummies, which enabled her to practice her blood draw techniques. Olivia found that recording herself and submitting feedback to her instructors helped her perfect her techniques in many aspects of her career. The in-depth simulations “Make it really feel like you are doing it for real.” 

Another aspect of her program that she enjoyed was the Practice Medical Office platform simulations. Olivia described these as almost like the Sims Video games. It places your character in a medical office setting doing many clinical tasks. Once Olivia began working in the field, she realized these simulations were spot on to what she encountered daily. 

Olivia is working on her bachelor’s in medical science and just received word that she was accepted into Harvard Online’s pre-med program. When she isn’t studying or spending time with family, she works for a vascular surgeon’s office as a medical assistant, and because many surgeons in the practice are also teachers, she can learn so much. She can observe during surgeries, which is great for her since her ultimate goal is to become a neurosurgeon. 

Olivia felt that her experience at Bryan University exceeded her expectations. “It exceeded my expectations because of how personable my instructors were. They were so friendly, and I didn’t expect learning to be as fun as it was.” 

And to those interested in starting school – Olivia says to do it, “There is so much knowledge that goes into the coursework that prepares you for a job or to continue with further education.”

Learn more about Bryan University’s Clinical Medical Assistant Undergraduate Certificate today!