Catherine Ruiz BSN, RN

Office: Building 2700, room 2717

Voice Mail: 546-3100 ext 2795

Email:  catherine_ruiz@cuesta.edu

Hello and Welcome to Medical Assisting Fast Track Program.  I have been in the medical field for most of my adult life.  If you love helping others this is a great place to start. My goal is to help you to accomplish your goal while having a great learning experience.

I have taught at Cuesta College for five years, both the MAST 110 which a basic introductory course, and MAST 111 & 111L.  You must pass MAST 110 to move on to MAST 111.  In addition, you must pass MAST 111 to go on into externship ( MAST 111L) as well as meeting the requirements. The requirements are explained in an orientation via zoom this Fall semester for those who have registered or on the wait-list.   Some examples of those requirements are background check, drug screening, immunization records, physical examination and a current CPR card for health care professionals.  The program is compact and goes really fast.  MAST 111 gives you hands on skills and will be a hybrid blend course with students attending class on campus on Thursdays.   MAST 111L is an externship done at various clinical sites.  The externship is done toward the end of MAST 111 and is completed after MAST 111 is finished.  For MAST 111L you will need to complete 48 hours of clincal externship hours.

You will need to have computer access with a reliable internet connection.  You will need to have GoggleChome for the proctored exams.

If you have any learning disabilities I strongly urge you to contact  Academic Support or Disabled Student Programs Services (DSPS) at the start of each semester

I am looking forward to meeting and working with all of you future Medical Assistants!

Textbook "Comprehensive Medical Assisting Administrative and Clinical Competencies"

  This letter is to inform you of some important details prior to the Fall semester.  This will be a two week introductory course covering the basics . The MAST 110 course will be taught online asynchronously.  After the initial orientation zoom conference please inform me if you plan on continuing the course or not via email.  Adding this course will be extremely limited due to difficulty with available externship sites. The first day of class will take place via zoom conference, more to come on that.  The course starts on August 19, the exams will be proctored. You will need access to a computer with a reliable internet connection.  Some of the topics I will be covering in this class are Professionalism, Law, Ethics and Communication.

The student learning outcomes are as follows:

1. Describe the role of the medical assistant including front and back office responsibilities.

2. Identify and demonstrate professional characteristice of a medical assistant

3.  Recognize and describe safe and ethical medical assisting practice based on California regulations, scope of practice and professional organizations.