Medical Assistant

A local man recently saw a dream come true when a trade magazine covering his profession published a feature story about him.
Joaquin Varo was featured in the March/April 2008 issue of the magazine, Certified Medical Assistant (CMA) Today, published by the American Association of Medical Assistants.

Varo is the program coordinator/translator at El Centro de Ayuda, a local non-profit organization that provides support and educational services to low-income families, and where clients receive free interpreting services.

“It was a dream of mine to be in that magazine,” Varo said. “When I was a student at Portland Community College (PCC) they showed us the magazine with our package of introductory materials and I said to my professor ‘One day I’ll be in that magazine.’

“His path toward inclusion in the magazine began when Varo emigrated to the Northwest from Mexico. When he was 14, his family went to California, where “we were Hispanic/Latino immigrant field workers picking grapes and strawberries,” he said. “

I got tired of it when I was 16, so 16 is when I went to high school in 1994.”He graduated from Newport High School with a special interest in science.”I was lucky I had great teachers at NHS,” he said. Among them, he mentioned his science teachers Mr. Stevenson and Ms. Life, where Varo had his first experiences with microscopes.

“I told my parents I wanted to be a medical assistant and they didn’t give me any feedback,” he said. “In two years, I graduated, and they didn’t believe it. As far as I’m concerned, I was the first generation in our family to go to college, and that wasn’t expected.

“He worked as a Hispanic program coordinator for Oregon Area Health Education Center, and later he enrolled in a medical assisting program at PCC.Currently at El Centro de Ayuda, he is on call with the hospital four days a week, 24 hours a day, and works with clients at El Centro de Ayuda for translating medical documents.

“We have a rather complicated medical system in the U.S. and so it is very difficult for people to navigate,” Varo stated in the magazine, ” … I know the system and I’m able to provide a link of communication between the patients and their providers.

“”I think we’re doing a really great service to the community and I can’t imagine what it would be like for them … we offer linguistic, spiritual, and emotional support,” Varo added.

“We offer the whole package. We’re aware that for a person to be healthy they have to be well physically and emotionally. We work to supplement and complement them all on the way to recovery.”

Varo said he enjoys his work, noting that this is his sixth year working in the medical translation field.

He is also in the process of becoming certified as a Registered Nurse through Oregon Coast Community College’s nursing program. (source)