If you're the kind of person who needs to find challenge and meaning in your career, the medical assisting field could be a good fit for you. You'll handle a wide variety of tasks that take you from the front office to the exam room to the medical lab. Medical assistants belong to one of the fastest growing career groups in the country and are predicted to rise by an astounding 35% by 2018. While most are directly employed in physicians’ offices, medical assistants are also needed at hospitals, clinics, and care facilities. No matter where you want to work, job opportunities for medical assistants are excellent for those with formal training or experience, and certification.
Medical assistants should have a knowledge base that includes anatomy, physiology, medical terminology, pharmacology, and medical billing and coding. This extensive knowledge makes assistants highly versatile professionals in both clinical and administrative realms. Medical assistants communicate with a wide variety people including doctors, nurses, patients, medical billing staff, insurance representatives and pharmacists.
If you are interested in pursuing a career as a medical assistant, you should know that while some assistants are trained on the job, most will need to complete 1 or 2 year programs. Medical assisting programs are offered in vocational schools, community colleges, and junior colleges such as the Ross Medical Education Center. These programs will usually last either 1 year and result in a certificate or diploma, or 2 years and result in an associate degree. The courses will cover a wide variety of topics including: anatomy, physiology, and medical terminology, as well as keyboarding, transcription, recordkeeping, accounting, and insurance processing. Medical assistants will be expected to know laboratory techniques, clinical and diagnostic procedures, pharmaceutical principles, the administration of medications, and first aid.
To expand your job opportunities after graduation, it is recommended that you receive formal training in medical assisting and become certified, and although this is not required, 90 percent of medical assistants opt to become certified. This may also be due to the fact that most employers prefer to hire only certified assistants and some states actually require certification to perform specific job duties such as performing X-rays or drawing blood. You can earn your medical assistant certification from a variety of organizations. Some of the most recognized medical assistant certifications are offered by The American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA), American Medical Technologists (AMT), and the National Healthcareer Association (NHA). Certification gives you a professional advantage as a medical assistant. The RMA and CMA credentials are national certifications recognized by employers across the country. You'll find that certification gives you greater credibility with peers and employers, better job security and greater opportunities to advance in your job. Medical assistant certification is an important stepping stone that will help you take your medical assistant career to the highest level.
As a medical assistant, it is also possible to become certified in a specialty, such as podiatry, optometry, or ophthalmology. Assistants may also advance to other occupations through experience or additional training. For example, some may go on to teach medical assisting, and others pursue additional education to become nurses or other healthcare workers. Administrative medical assistants may advance to office managers, or qualify for a variety of administrative support occupations.
Author Resource:
Michael Belmont is the author of this article on Medical Assistant .
Find more information about Medical Assisting Classes here.
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