Medical Assistant Training

Though there are no state laws or regulations which state that formal training is mandatory to work in this field but it will definitely help. Your resume will look much better if you have a diploma, certification or an associates’ degree in medical assistant. There are few employers who train their own medical assistants, but due to heavy demand and work pressure, this practice is becoming rare and rare. Now-a-days, most of the employers prefer to take trained or rather certified medical assistants due to the fact that trained and certified medical assistants are efficient and can understand and handle the patients well.

Preparing for Medical training:

A medical assistant is expected to have a high school diploma or GED whether he/she is trained by the employer or attend medical assistant school on self. If you want to become a medical assistant, start the preparation right from high school itself. Enrolling in courses like biology, anatomy, mathematics, book keeping, typing and office procedures will help you get a clear idea on medical career training.

Where can you apply for medical training?

Medical training is offered at vocational-technical high schools, junior and community colleges and post secondary vocational schools. Different schools offer different types of medical assistant training programs including medical training, administrative training and clerical training.

 Diploma, certificate or Associates’ Degree!! Which program should you select?

You can complete a diploma degree or certificate in medical assisting in just one year. This is a good option if you are focusing completely on medical career training. This program just concentrates on medical training and nothing else. This is also a cheaper program when compared to 2 year program and completes in shorter time.

However, getting associates’ degree is the best option for medical assistants. As per the statistics of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, getting associates’ degree is the best option to succeed as a medical assistant.

These days’ employers are preferring people with higher education. Having an associate’s degree in medical assisting will definitely give you a cutting edge over those who have one year certificate or diploma degrees in medical assistant.

Hence always prefer to go for a 2 year Associate’s degree if you are not much worried about time and money as this will definitely help you in future.

What kind of training is given in training schools and what kind training do you require

The medical assistants training can typically be classified into 3 types

1.       Administrative

2.       Clerical

3.       Clinical

Training completely depends upon the type of program chosen by the medical assistant. However, medical assistants are expected to be flexible and may require very diverse skills hence they are given a brief idea about other programs along with their main program. A medical assistant is trained in first aid, anatomy, health and pharmaceutical procedures, medical terminology to prepare for clinical requirements, office procedures, patient relations, medical ethics and medical law to prepare for administrative requirements of employer. Hence a medical assistant training includes everything that can prepare you for clinical, administrative requirements of the employer.

Description, Pros and Cons of Medical Assistant Job

A Certified Medical Assistant or Medical Assistant helps the physicians and nurses with different medical and administrative tasks. Many people are opting for medical assistant jobs these days as their career choice because of its versatility, demand and attractive salaries. To add to that, there are different types of medical assistant jobs which make it even more wonderful career choice.

Medical assistant job description:

A medical assistant is expected to do a variety of tasks which include taking checking patients, vital signals, medical record keeping such as updating and filing charts, helping in medical billing and insurance coding etc.

Typical Schedule:

Medical Assistants are expected to work for minimum of 40 hours in a week, Monday through Friday. However, medical assistants are also expected to be flexible about their working hours as they might have to work during nights and weekends unless there is a separate weekend and night working staff.

Pros and Cons in medical assistant jobs:

Pros:  Medical assistants are trained in both administrative and clinical tasks which makes it the most versatile professional job.  Medical assistants are trained in different tasks related to medical office. As they are not limited to particular medical specialty, they will have lot of opportunities in different medical offices.

Cons: Though medicals assistants will have lot of opportunities, medical assisting is not among most well paid allied health care professions. It is not a great career path. Vertical movement in the job is limited unless you are willing to go for higher education related to medical field.

Courses offered for Medical Assistant:

Aspiring medical assistants can choose between two educational programs. You can complete a two year associate’s degree or choose one year certification course from a recognized school. The medical associates will be trained about medical terminology, medical billing, first aid etc.

Certification for medical assistants:

After completing the course, the medical assistants can apply for certification exam to become CMA (Certified Medical Assistant). This exam is conducted by American Association for Medical Assistants. American Association for medical assistants will conduct the certification exam thrice in a year. This certification has to be renewed every five years. Though some employers do not insist on certification, but CMA’s will typically have more jobs than normal medical assistants.

Job Outlook:

Demand for medical assistant job is growing day by day. Employment of medical assistants is expected to grow by more than 30 percent marking the medical assistants as the fastest growing occupation over the decade of 2008 to 2018. This growth is very much high when compared to average of all the occupations.

With the drastic growth of population in almost all the developing and developed countries, there is a great need of health centers. So the increase in the number of clinics, hospitals and other health care facilities has simultaneously increased the number of job opportunities for medical assistants.

Salary:

Though the salaries typically depend upon the employer, medical assistants can normally expect an annual income of somewhere between USD 22,000 to USD 32,000.

Medical Assistant Schools and Courses

Medical assistants are health care providers who perform clinical and administrative tasks to help doctors, podiatrists and other health care representatives.

Job Description:

The role of the medical assistants varies depending upon the location of work, specialty of the practitioner and size of the hospital or clinic. Usually in small practices, the medical assistants have a vast scope of learning many things as they have to look after all the
administrative and clinical tasks. Those who work in large practices, tend to specialize in a specific area under the supervision of the departmental head. A medical assistant should not be compared with a physical assistant who can check the condition of the patients, understand them and treat their health problems accordingly under the supervision of the physician or doctor.

Medical Assistant Courses:

Depending upon the employer, the medical assistants can go for administrative, clerical or clinical training programs. There are three types of medical assistant courses available for aspirants looking for a career as medical assistants- Diploma, certification or associates. There are many types of medical assistant schools which offer medical assistant courses such as post secondary vocational schools, vocational technical high school/s, junior and community colleges. Most of the medical assistant schools offer a one year postsecondary programs which either last for 1 year and result in a certificate or diploma, or 2 years and result in an associate degree. These courses from medical assistant schools cover a lot of different topics like medical terminology, physiology, anatomy along with insurance processing, keyboarding, transcription, accounting and record keeping. Medical assisting schools also train their students in clinical and diagnostic procedures, administration of medications, laboratory techniques, first aid, medical law and ethics, patient relations and office practices. As almost everything depend upon the medical assisting school, it is very essential to choose a right medical assisting school that can train you in everything that is essential for a medical assistant to succeed in his/her job.

Certification for medical assistants:


There are two accrediting bodies that certify the medical assistants. They are Association of Medical Technologists (AMT) and American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA). Depending upon the association, the process of certification will vary. These entities also help the medical assistants to get certified in a particular specialty such as optometry, ophthalmology or podiatry. Though it is not mandatory that a medical assistant has to be certified, however certification indicates that that a medical assistant has met the certain standards of knowledge and it also opens up many
opportunities of employment in different medical institutions.

Job Prospects:

Medical assistants also have a flexibility to advance into other occupations through additional training along with experience. For example administrative medical assistants may advance to office managers and some may pursue additional education to become nurses and other health-care workers. Some may choose to go on to teaching field and give training in medical assisting.

More than 100,000 jobs are held by medical assistants by the end of the year 2010. Almost 65 percent are working in the offices of physicians, 15 percent are working in private and public hospitals and 20 percent are working in offices of other health practitioners. Employment is projected to grow with more than average speed ranking medical assistants as fastest growing occupation by the end of this decade. Job opportunities will be excellent especially for those who are certified by accrediting bodies AMT
and AAMA.

Salary:

The salaries of the medical assistants typically depend upon three factors.

1. Experience
2. Skill
3. Location of the practice

Though, it is not possible to estimate the exact salary of a medical assistant, it can be approximately be between $19,851 to $40,564 depending upon above parameters along with few other minor factors.