Medical, dental career training now offered in Sussex County
Posted: Jun 29, 2014 10:33 AM EDT
Updated: Jun 29, 2014 8:15 PM EDT
By ERIC OBERNAUER
eobernauer@njherald.com
http://bit.ly/DMCTI-NJHerald
NEWTON -- Despite the hangover from the Great Recession, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the need for entry-level dental and medical assistants remains strong, with employment projected to grow much faster than the national average for all occupations over the next decade.
And for the first time, Sussex County residents looking to break into one of these fields can now receive the necessary training without having to leave the county -- a boon to area residents who've been beaten down by a bad economy.
"I've been in dentistry since 1992 and started from a school exactly like this," said Yana Zaydel, founder of the Dental and Medical Career Training Institute in Newton. "I got very lucky because I fell in love with dentistry. I loved the people, loved talking with the patients, and loved the dentists I worked for. And when you love what you're doing and you make good money doing it, you can't ask for more."
Dental and Medical Career Training Institute owner Yana Zaydel, standing, shows student Pat Stevenson, of Wantage, the jaw on a model skull in the classroom in the school in Newton
Zaydel knows a thing or two about reinventing onself in order to survive.
As a 26-year-old expecting her second child, she and her husband and their 3-year-old son emigrated from Russia in 1991 with no idea of what the future held.
At the time, the winds of glasnost and perestroika were blowing through the former Soviet Union, and Zaydel -- whose family members had been persecuted for generations because of their religious beliefs -- had already decided she'd had enough and wanted out.
"I'm Jewish, and I suffered enough," she said. "When Boris (her son) was born, I said no, he's not going through it."
She remains grateful to Mikhail Gorbachev, the former head of the Soviet Union, for setting in motion the reforms that allowed her to leave but said, having made a return visit once to Russia with her children in 2005, that she has no desire ever to go back again.
Still, life in her adopted country presented its own set of hurdles.
"When we got here, we had only five hundred dollars between us and didn't know any English," she said. "It was hard."
Though the transition was made somewhat easier by a family in Baltimore they had waiting for them, the next few years would prove to be both the best and worst of times.
A biochemical engineer by training, Zaydel soon found that the degree she had worked so hard to attain in Russia was accorded almost no recognition in America and that she would have to start over.
A training course in dental assisting was soon followed by her first job as a dental assistant, after which she went on to further study to become a registered dental hygienist.
As a self-described "people person" with a love for the science of dentistry, Zaydel had long felt drawn to the idea of someday opening her own school for others looking to start a new career or to advance their skills. It was while working at a dentist's office in Rockaway that Zaydel, who lives in Pompton Lakes, began to see Sussex County as the place to do it.
"The people I worked with always complained that they had to travel 60 or 90 minutes to get any kind of education," Zaydel said.
Several of them, she said, came from Sussex County and the surrounding area, where -- despite the presence of Sussex County Community College -- career training and resources are at a premium.
Moreover, investing two or more years in a college-level program is not for everyone.
"Most community colleges are very inflexible with their hours and requirements," Zaydel said. "They want you to go two years, and not everyone has the desire or money to do that."
For Pat Stevenson, 55, of Wantage, who lost her job in accounts receivable in February, enrolling locally at Zaydel's school in a program leading to certification as a dental assistant will allow her to launch a new career not in years but in a matter of months.
"Her (Zaydel's) dental instruction program is the only one in this area," said Stevenson. "Other than that, the closest ones are in Fairfield, and the county college doesn't offer anything dental-related."
The 72-hour certified dental assisting program can be completed in as little as three months by attending classes once a week or in six weeks by attending twice per week, but Zaydel said her school is flexible enough to accommodate almost any student's schedule.
"A determined full-time student could do it in as little as four weeks," she said.
Similar timeframes apply to most of the school's other programs, which include dental radiology, medical billing and coding, dental billing and coding, and others that will train people for job titles such as medical administrative assistant, EKG technician, pharmacy technician assistant, or physical therapy aide.
What's more, because the courses are offered on an ongoing basis rather than on the traditional semester schedule of colleges and universities, new students can jump on board almost any time during the year. The programs, she said, are open to anyone with a high school diploma or G.E.D.
"And I will open a class for just one student," said Zaydel, who likened the experience to one-on-one tutoring.
In fact, she said, the three students who have enrolled thus far are each in different programs -- Stevenson is training to be a certified dental assistant, and one student each is also training to be a medical administrative assistant and physical therapy aide.
The school has also partnered with Atlantic Health System to offer internships, and because it is an official provider for the state Department of Labor's One-Stop Program and the Department of Education -- both of which gave their approval in January -- unemployed individuals may be elibible to have their tuition paid for by the state.
All three students currently enrolled were referred through the One-Stop Program, which is paying for their studies, said Zaydel.
But even those ineligible to have their training subsidized can complete any of the programs with out-of-pocket expenses totalling no more than $4,000. Zaydel said she also is hoping to have low-cost student loans made available in the not-too-distant future.
To open her school, which operates out of a rented building on Trinity Street, Zaydel estimates she has had to invest about $45,000, including about $6,000 for an X-ray unit. With several people having expressed interest in EKG technician classes, she figures she'll soon have to front another $2,500 for an EKG machine.
Zaydel's start-up expenses would have been even greater had she not had the good fortune of having a dentist's chair and some other dental equipment donated.
"I've been in dentistry so long and know so many dentists and always stayed in touch with them, and a dentist who was moving gave me all his stuff from his old office," she said.
While growing the school, Zaydel is continuing to work as a dental hygienist for dentists in Montclair and Irvington.
While she loves working as a hygienist, Zaydel said "my heart is here -- no question about it -- and I wish I could be here full-time, but somebody still has to pay the bills."
Zaydel is confident that as her students find jobs and as word gets out about the entry-level opportunities in healthcare, interest in the opportunities offered through her school will grow.
The median annual pay for dental assistants in 2012 was $34,500, according to the BLS, and Zaydel said she's confident she'll be able to help Stevenson and her other students find jobs in their respective fields that pay a decent wage.
"The name of the game is to get a job, and I'm doing everything I can to help them," said Zaydel.
One dental practice with multiple offices in the area even contacted her recently and told her they'll need to hire someone in the next four months, she said.
Shortly before opening her school, Zaydel received an unannounced visit from a director of the Workforce Investment Board, which is charged by law with directing funds to workforce development programs and overseeing the One-Stop Career Centers.
"They came to welcome us and said we really need you here in Sussex County and that there's no other school like this," Zaydel said.
Beyond affording her students an opportunity to find meaningful and remunerative work, Zaydel harbors the hope that many will come to truly embrace their new careers.
"I was so crazy about dentistry and often brought my daughter with me to the office and would let her help me and the dentist," Zaydel recalled. "I have such a good relationship with people in general and loved talking to the patients and educating them."
The apple, in her case, didn't fall far from the tree, either: Today Zaydel's daughter is studying to become a dentist herself and recently completed her first year at the Rutgers University School of Dentistry.
And with her daughter pursuing her dream, Zaydel now has time to pursue her own.
"I always wanted to open a school like this but never had the opportunity, but now my kids are grown, so it's my time," she said.
