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FHIMA Student Spotlight

Florida has 26 CAHIIM accredited schools within our state borders, in addition to many out-of-state schools serving Florida students. These students may seek anything from an Associates to a Master’s degree in Health Information Management and Healthcare Informatics. As up-and-coming future professionals, we wanted to be able to introduce some of these rising stars to you - their future coworkers, peers, and friends.

The FHIMA Membership Retention and Student Engagement Committee started accepting the first round of quarterly nominations from CAHIIM accredited Program Directors in February. This continued through the end of March. Interviews were conducted during April. The results are our FHIMA Student Spotlight.

For our inaugural spotlight, we are pleased to introduce you to not one, but two students with strong words of praise from their Program Director. When you see these students at regional meetings or our FHIMA Annual Convention, please take a few minutes to get to know them better.

Without further ado, here’s our Student Spotlight winners!
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Rachel Partin

Name: Rachel Partin
School: Seminole State College
Program Director: Nicole Copemann
Program: AS Health Information Technology

Rachel is married and has a 6 year old daughter. She also has a rabbit. In her spare time, she enjoys educational activities such as going to museums and reading history and geography books. She volunteers at her daughter’s school.

Rachel has a previous background in healthcare. She was a CNA straight out of high school and has worked in hospice, home care and long-term care. She has also performed drug testing in a methadone clinic. She wanted to get out of direct patient care, which led her to research various career options. During that research, she felt she naturally gravitated towards HIM.

Rachel is interested in coding aspects of HIM with a preference towards auditing and analysis. She has a desire to dig deep where she can truly touch and improve quality efforts. Rachel shared that the one thing that has resonated with her most in training for this field was the way she managed constructive criticism. She says she wants to know what she’s doing wrong and how to improve herself, because that directly relates to how well she’ll perform her future work.

Rachel’s advice to someone just starting out in HIM classes? Don’t be afraid to put in extra work and effort. What you put in to it is what you are going to get out of it. The more you work for something the better off you will be.
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Heather Wenzel

Name: Heather Pratt Wenzel
School: Seminole State College
Program Director: Nicole Copemann
Program: AS Health Information Technology

Heather is married with two daughters, ages 14 and 5. In her spare time, Heather spends her time supporting the Special Olympics. This organization holds special meaning for her because she has family with Autism.

Heather’s previous background deals with customer service in the retail and banking industries. She took a leap and returned to school in a field she knew nothing about. She returned to the school where she got her AA due to its proximity and availability of online courses. She looked into coding, however, her Academic Advisor encouraged her to pursue the 2-year degree instead. Although Heather graduates this August, this time in classes has helped her set a goal of pursuing a Master’s degree in HIM or Health Informatics.

Heather has shared that she really enjoys the legal and EHR aspects of her classes. She is excited to be able to help patients and potentially be involved in making positive changes. These interests have gotten her looking deeper at compliance, accreditation and ethical standards as potential work avenues. Heather shared that the one thing that has resonated with her most in training for this field is the passion her professors have for the field and the encouragement they provide. Even with how many paths exist in HIM, there is a unity and fellowship that really made an impression on her.

Heather’s advice to someone just starting out in HIM classes? It’s going to seem overwhelming at first, because there is a lot to learn, but if you just stick with it, it all comes together. In the end it is so worth it, and it such an amazing program.
 

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