Hear From Dominic Flores, MSHCA, CPT, MA, Career Prep Instructor, Pima Medical Institute
In this episode of Voices of Vital Care, host Nohelani Graf sits down with Dominic Flores to talk about belonging, mentorship and why health care works better when the people in it feel seen and accepted. Most of us can remember a time we walked into a room and quietly wondered whether we fit in. For Flores, that question has shaped his entire career. Flores is a career prep instructor at Pima Medical Institute, a researcher, an LGBTQ+ advocate and the founder of the nonprofit PRIDEHealth Education.
His story at Pima Medical Institute started with a lunch delivery. Flores was fresh out of high school when his aunt asked him to bring her lunch at a Pima Medical campus. She handed him a list of programs and asked whether he wanted to help people. By the time she finished eating, he had taken an entrance test. The following Monday he showed up in scrubs attending his first class in the Medical Assistant certificate program.
Nohelani asks Flores what belonging really means to him. He names inclusivity, visibility, respect and trust. Then he speaks directly to any student who has ever doubted their place in the field:
“You are accepted. You do belong, okay? You’re gay, you’re lesbian, you’re transgender, you’re queer. You belong.”
-Dominic Flores, MSHCA, CPT, MA, career prep instructor, Pima Medical Institute
Flores knows what it’s like to stay quiet about your sexual orientation at work, and he’s had to choose to show up as himself anyway. That’s why he tells his students plainly that it’s okay to be who you, wherever you are, including the medical field. Recently, a student thanked him for being a voice for her and her wife on campus. She told him it had been hard to represent her identity where she came from.
That same conviction drives his doctoral research. Flores studied mentorship and belonging among early-career gay men in health care. Many of his participants started out as new nurses and doctors who felt unsupported and undervalued because of their sexual identity. Often they worked at organizations with no policies in place to support LGBTQ+ employees. Flores points to research showing that some people in that position leave health care altogether and start over in a new industry. So Nohelani asks whether one mentor can really change the course of someone’s career. His answer comes straight from those interviews:
“I had one participant who mentioned that if it wasn’t for their mentor, they would have changed their career a long time ago.”
-Dominic Flores, MSHCA, CPT, MA, career prep instructor, Pima Medical Institute
Flores knows this from his own life, too. As a medical assisting student in 2002, he told his instructor, Miss Spark, that he didn’t like the program and didn’t know what he was doing. She told him to go for it and promised she’d be there for him. She stayed after class to help, and she sometimes brought him a burrito on Monday mornings when she noticed he had no lunch. He finished the program because of her, and the two still keep in touch. Now he tries to be that person for every student who walks into his classroom.
In this episode, you will learn:
- What belonging in health care really looks like, from visibility and respect to trust and honest feedback
- Why Flores’s research on early-career gay men in health care points to mentorship as a turning point for staying in the field
- What health care loses when LGBTQ+ professionals don’t feel supported, and why inclusive workplace policies matter
- How feeling accepted at work frees health care professionals to focus fully on patient care
- What career prep covers before students start their programs, including anatomy, physiology, math, study skills, time management, computer basics and CPR
- The professionalism and open-mindedness employers look for, and the most common mistake Flores sees students make during clinical externships
- How Flores went from an unsure high school graduate in the Medical Assistant certificate program to a researcher, nonprofit founder and instructor
- Practical advice for finding a mentor when you don’t know where to start
Who this episode is for: Current and future health care students, LGBTQ+ professionals looking for community in the field and anyone who has ever wondered whether they belong in health care.
Ready to learn more? Learn how to apply or reach out to the Pima Medical Institute admissions team to find out if the Medical Assistant certificate program is the right fit for you.
