In honor of National Caregivers Day, we here at Pima Medical Institute want to recognize all of the dedicated healthcare professionals who serve those needing varying types of care.
These people provide support to those who need it most, and they do it with compassion and professionalism. With long and demanding days, they deserve a shout out. As a way to recognize the many caregivers out there, we thought we’d let you hear from one of our recent grads.
Sharon Kujath is a graduate of our Nursing Assistant / Nurse Aide program at our Mesa Campus. She faced many hurdles and overcame a language barrier to earn her degree. Now she plans to continue her education with hopes of becoming a Physical Therapist Assistant.
Here’s Sharon’s story in her own words.
“I was born in Iran, and my family moved to Germany when I was 12 years old. While living in Germany, I had a very positive experience working with Alzheimer patients, which influenced my desire to work in the medical field. When I moved to the United States 2 ½ years ago, my English was very poor, so I took an ESL class and got a job babysitting two children where I learned a lot of English!
I found Pima Medical Institute online and enrolled in their Nursing Assistant program. I had a very difficult time because of the language! I would have to translate from English to German to understand and then translate back to English. I studied every night until very late and lost 10 pounds from the stress, but my instructor at PMI was so kind and helped me so much. I passed the certification exam on the first try.
I was very excited for my externship experience at a local nursing home, and when it was complete, they hired me as a CNA. I enjoy my job and I’m thankful for what I learned at PMI, but I want more. Each day I observe how the Physical Therapist Assistants work with our patients, so my plan is to go back to PMI to attend their PTA program so that I can do this very important work.”
