Medical Assistant Describes her Journey at Good Sam Gwinnett: ‘I Found my Calling to Serve’

Several years ago, before Gloria Cruz came to Good Samaritan Health Centers of Gwinnett (Good Sam Gwinnett), a nonprofit serving the working poor and uninsured of north Metro Atlanta, she worked in a completely different field of accounting and business. However, she did not find fulfillment in her job and wanted to explore other avenues. She took a leap of faith, and through hard work and overcoming self-doubt, learned to trust in God’s plan. 

Wanting to change careers, Cruz began taking classes at the University of Georgia (UGA) and earned a medical interpretation certification. However, she had trouble landing a job without any previous medical experience. A classmate from UGA (who happened to work at Good Sam Gwinnett) told Cruz about a volunteer opportunity at the clinic, and Cruz thought this would be a good way to gain experience. 

So, Cruz began volunteering at Good Sam Gwinnett, helping Spanish-speaking patients communicate with their healthcare providers. She saw how those in the clinic graciously served people in their communities who don’t have health insurance. 

Gloria Cruz began volunteering at Good Sam Gwinnett, helping Spanish-speaking patients communicate with their healthcare providers.

Cruz decided she wanted more than to be a volunteer. She quit her accounting job and applied for a front desk position and then later moved to check out. There, patients would ask her questions like, “What is a CT? What’s a CMP? What’s a CBC? Why is my provider referring me to the gynecologist?” 

To answer this slew of questions, Cruz began doing her own research and asked the clinic’s medical assistants and providers for help. 

“So that helped me and pushed me to expand my knowledge more into the [medical] field,” Cruz explained. 

Cruz kept notes and was able to answer patients’ questions, educating them about their medications, treatments, and more. She kept wanting to learn more and discovered that she loved helping patients. 

A position for medical assistant became available in the clinic, so Cruz applied, was hired, and began working more closely with patients. 

“It’s just a great hands-on experience,” Cruz said of her new job. “It’s just a great learning opportunity I think that expanded more of my knowledge.” 

She took on another responsibility of volunteer coordinator, responsible for onboarding and scheduling more than 15 volunteers per semester. She also came up with an orientation that Good Sam Gwinnett uses to onboard volunteers today. 

Gloria Cruz kept notes and was able to answer patients’ questions, educating them about their medications, treatments, and more. She kept wanting to learn more and discovered that she loved helping patients.

Cruz also got trained to be a back-up pharmacy technician so she can manage the dispensary on Buford Highway when the current technician needs to take leave. 

After Good Sam Gwinnett merged with Bridge Atlanta and acquired a clinic now known as Good Samaritan Health Center of East Gwinnett (Good Sam East), Cruz was offered the position of Back Office Manager. 

“I think that every position — from the time that you receive the payment to the time that you dispense medications — has been an amazing experience for me,” Cruz said. “I’ve learned a lot.” 

“Not only did I find a passion in healthcare, but I also grew spiritually. And although it may sound cliche to say that I found my calling to serve, I found it here, among us, to serve the vulnerable and the most needy, and I have come to learn to be a servant,” Cruz said one morning during staff devotion. 

In 2019, Cruz started taking classes to earn a nursing degree, but in 2022, she will be leaving Good Sam Gwinnett so she can take classes at the Mary Inez Grindle School of Nursing at Brenau University. She hopes to complete her nursing degree in December 2023. 

“I feel like it has been a blessing to have Good Sam Gwinnett as my home,” she said. “And I do plan to come back eventually to volunteer … But it’s a home. It’s a place where I think it saw me grow professionally to reach my goal, and I will be forever grateful to the organization because if it wasn’t for Good Sam Gwinnett, I feel like I don’t know where I would have ended up. It opened the doors to me for the medical field.” 

Though it may have taken her some time, Cruz has found a career she’s passionate about, and most of all — she found her calling to serve.