Last August, Galveston College student Jason Nichols, of Galveston, set a goal to
earn a Level One Medical Coding Certificate. He realized this would mean registering
for 15 rigorous credit hours each semester and that those classes were only offered
in the evening. He worked as an Office Depot sales consultant during the day and then
transformed into a Galveston College student as the sun began to set. He attended
class two to three nights weekly for two semesters.
Some nights Nichols took two consecutive classes, beginning at 5:30 p.m., and remained
in the class until the second class ended after 9 p.m. Not only did he successfully
earn 15 credit hours each semester, he did it with excellence and was placed on the
Vice President’s List two consecutive semesters with a 3.6 grade-point average.
As Nichols worked to complete requirements for the second semester, he set a second
goal to prepare and take the American Association of Professional Coders (AAPC) certification
exam. He took the Certified Professional Coder (CPC) exam and passed the challenging
test in May 2019. With these two major accomplishments under his belt, he created
a resume and applied for a medical coding position at the University of Texas Medical
Branch (UTMB) in Galveston.
Nichols was selected for the position and is currently employed as a revenue cycle
coder at UTMB. His professor, Donna Swartz, said Nichols made himself a very strong
candidate by earning the certificate and coupling it with passing the AAPC CPC exam.
Nichols is currently coding for community-based family medicine and general practice
outpatient clinics and has found the work extremely interesting and rewarding. He
was recently elected secretary of the Galveston chapter of the AAPC.