STUDENT SUCCESS A disability can’t keep Onsum from her goals With two jobs and the challenges of living with a disability, it wasn’t feasible for
Jennifer Onsum to travel back and forth from her Minneapolis home to a college campus for classes. Through M State’s eCampus, though, she’s realizing her dream of a career in a medical profession. “I’ve always been fascinated by the medical world and decided I wanted to go back to school for something in the medical field,” said Jennifer, who earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of St. Thomas and has worked in public relations since graduating seven years ago. “Direct patient care isn’t for me, so I learned about the area of health information management and decided it was for me.”
“Also, my physical disability can make me fatigue easier and be more susceptible to illnesses, so I really needed to be able to do things on my time and schedule.” Jennifer was featured in a student profile in the professional magazine of the American Health Information Management Association, where she related that her many hospitalizations since she was a baby will give her a “unique edge” in the field and an opportunity to contribute to better patient care. Health information technologists are crucial players in the medical industry’s conversion to electronic health care records, coding and categorizing patient information. “HIM might not have a direct impact on an individual patient, but the information gathered can be analyzed and used to improve the quality of care being delivered to all patients,” Jennifer said, explaining her motivation in the AHIMA magazine.
Jennifer enrolled at M State after finding eCampus offered one of the few Health Information Technology degrees in the state that could be completed totally online. That was essential for Jennifer since, in addition to her jobs, she has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair.
During the course of her program, Jennifer gained “excellent” practical experience during an internship at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. Her ultimate career goal is a job as an inpatient coder, who monitors a patient’s chart during admission, or a trauma registrar, who reviews all trauma cases that come into a hospital’s emergency department with the goal of improving treatment for all trauma patients.
“I was working two jobs and just didn’t have the time to go in for classes,” she said.
“It will be a big career change for me, and hopefully a really good one,” Jennifer said.
Minnesota State Community and Technical College Annual Report 2011-2012
Jennifer Onsum eCampus
I was working two jobs and just didn’t have the time to go in for classes.
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