About NIMAA
The National Institute for Medical Assistant Advancement (NIMAA) is a post-secondary learning institute focused on a new and innovative approach to medical assistant training, created in partnership between primary health care employers and educators. We believe that experience is the source of learning and development.
At NIMAA, students learn from national leaders in primary health care, use the latest on-line teaching tools, while simultaneously participating in their externship in our partnership host clinics. NIMAA graduates are prepared to work as effective members of the medical team in community health centers and other high-performing primary care organizations across the country. Graduates of NIMAA are in a position to command living wages and benefits from employers who demand high quality medical assistants with integrated team-based skills.
NIMAA is a collaboration between two of the nation’s leading Federally Qualified Health Centers, Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC) in Connecticut providing care to 145,000 patients and Salud Family Health Centers in Colorado, serving more than 70,000 patients. Both organizations are recognized by the National Committee on Quality Assurance as Level 3 Patient-Centered Medical Homes, using teams to provide comprehensive medical, dental and behavioral health services to the medically underserved in the communities they serve.
In August of 2016, NIMAA Phase I began. NIMAA offers a unique medical assisting curriculum that includes person-centered care with student externship embedded in the integrated health care team. NIMAA graduated its first class of students in April of 2017, our “Pioneer Partner Students.” In 2017, we started our second cohort in Colorado, Connecticut and Hawaii with five health centers providing externships in 18 clinics.
NIMAA is actively enrolling students in Connecticut, Colorado, and Hawaii for classes beginning September, 2018.
Get involved in learning!
Become a NIMAA student – Do you want to learn how to become a vital member of a health care team? NIMAA's 7-month program combines online learning with hands-on skill practice rooted in the health care setting. NIMAA students learn concepts in the online portion of the course and practice their skills onsite in a participating NIMAA Externship Site.
Become a NIMAA Externship Site – Do you want to help NIMAA learners become highly qualified medical assistants and effective members of the integrated health care team? A NIMAA Externship Site serves as the stage for practice and observation of team-based care for MA students. NIMAA includes training for your preceptors, and as an externship site, your team gains the benefits of getting to know students for an extended period of time. NIMAA serves as your recruitment tool and will potentially lower your training costs because the externship becomes a pipeline to your employment opportunities.
Would you like to join the NIMAA mailing list? Email us at nimaa@chc1.com.
Founding Partners:
