What is a Medical Assistant? Today, medical assistants are one of the fastest growing professions in the health care business. Figures show that this job is estimated to rise for the next ten years due to the progression of medical equipment and the growing number of inhabitants around the globe.
If you desire to become a medical assistant, you don’t need a master’s degree. All you need is your high school credential or a GED equivalent. Aspirant medical assistants must simply undergo programs which will only take six months to two years to accomplish.
The course for medical assisting includes the fundamental medical terminology, anatomy and physiology and supplementary administrative training like recordkeeping, accounting, transcription, and so on and so forth.
The program courses are purposely designed to help hopeful medical assistants to be authoritative and competitive in their chosen vocation. This is because medical assistants’ nature of work is to perform or to keep medical establishments structured and to keep it running smoothly. Also, since medical assistants are directly working with patients and with other medical employees like doctors and nurses, their program courses also include patient relations, ethics and medical laws and principles.
Medical assistant is different from a physician assistant or a nurse. Medical assistants carry out clerical and clinical tasks while nurses are more on treatments and patient handling.
In general a medical assistant handles administrative duties and or clinical duties.
1. Administrative Tasks
- Answering telephone calls
- Serve patients and families
- Appointment scheduling
- Fiscal recording and billing
- Clerical
- Handling correspondence
- Filing and updating patient’s medical records
- Handles insurance forms
- Arranging hospital admissions
- Assisting in laboratory services
2. Clinical Tasks
- Taking patient’s health history
- Recording patient’s vital signs
- Preparing patients for medical examinations
- Assisting doctors in health examinations
- Explaining to patients the procedures that are to be done to them
- Collects and prepares the laboratory specimens
- Purchasing medical materials and equipments
- Disposing of infected medical materials
- Preparing medical instruments
- Making sure that hospital quarters such as waiting rooms and examination rooms are clean and tidy
In some hospitals medical assistants are authorized, under the supervision of doctors to carry out elemental medical tasks such as:
- Basic laboratory tests
- Prepare medications and administer medications as well
- Instructing patients in taking medications and some diets
- Drug refills
- Draw blood
- Changing of dressings
- Removing sutures
Since medical assistants have a large scope of tasks, they should at all times stay focused and systematic. They must possess pleasing personality and must be good communicators for they must make the patients feel comfortable and easy before and or during examination. Also, medical assistants must be prim and well groomed for they should look presentable when dealing with patients.
Duties and tasks of medical assistants vary depending in the hospitals they work. In small hospitals or clinics they are to perform both administrative and clinical duties while in extensive hospitals where there are other medical employees, medical assistants are impelled to performed exclusive tasks under the supervision of the department administrators.
Regardless where medical assistants work, they are very functional in helping healthcare workers to perform their jobs more effectively and prolifically. As a consequence, the growing needs of people’s medical attention are met through them.
Becoming a medical assistant presents the unique opportunity for someone to pursue a career in which they are able to take on meaningful work while simultaneously earning a competitive salary. It is without a doubt that there are a number of benefits in becoming a medical assistant. Take for example that the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reported jobs for medical assistants will grow by thirty four percent through 2018, meaning those entering the field will have a very high chance of being employed. What are often times left out of the conversation about pursuing the position of medical assistant, however, are the challenges one must face upon gaining employment.
Much like the position of a nurse or doctor, a medical assistant faces an abnormal amount of stress in the workplace. This is due to the work at hand: medical assistants deal with life or death situations such as serious surgeries and potentially harmful operations. Unlike most other professions, when a medical assistant makes a mistake it could cost someone’s life. Additionally, many medical assistants have noted that doctors tend to be very stern or condescending towards them, often times taking their superior position a bit too far. Experts recommend that those looking to become medical assistants should be able to work competently under stressful situations and have many refer to as ‘thick skin’ when dealing their superiors.
While the standard job for Americans operates from 9am to 5pm from Monday to Friday, medical assistants are often expected to work additional hours, nights, and weekends. Depending on where a medical assistant is employed – be it inpatient, outpatient, hospital, medical office, or clinic – they may be expected to work around the clock or at odd hours depending on the center’s unique needs. Also, because medical assistants are often designated to work with specific patients they might have to work undesirable hours depending on emergencies, complications, or a patient’s needs. Medical assistants have reported extreme fatigue and exhaustion from working long, odd hours and end up feeling worn down by the end of a work week.
With any job, it is very important to consider every aspect before jumping into the field head first. While the position of medical assistant has a number of perks, it is important to consider the significant amount of stress and fatigue that medical assistants have reported as a result of their job.
Becoming a medical assistant is definitely a more and more appealing job in today’s world. Mainly because medical assistant training is affordable, they are employed in a clean environment, they also have many specialized options to pick from, they develop long lasting relationships, the medical field is stable when compared to other job areas, and they are proud of the things they do. It’s the perfect job for people who want to work in the medical field and help patients, but aren’t able to deal with the demanding role of a doctor or surgeon.
A medical assistant is crucial to the physicians and nursing staff, for the reason that physicians and nursing staff must be able to focus on the medical problems and concerns of their patients. These assistants keep the doctors on schedule, the healthcare office on course, the workflow smooth and running, the patients informed, and the customers comfortable and safe. Basically, they keep the clinic together. Physicians and surgeons have their own large list of obligations and responsibilities to maintain. They just do not have the time to handle all the tasks that are assigned to the medical assistants. Without them, things would be quite chaotic and frustrating. Doctors as well as nursing staff would have way too much on their plate to manage.
Medical assistants could be employed by family medical clinics, team health care offices, ambulatory walk-in treatment centers, medical facilities, as well as other various facilities under the employment of physicians and certified health care professionals. These assistants mainly focus on dealing with day-to-day clinical and administrative medical facility routines for example processing patients in and out when they arrive for their scheduled appointment, guiding patients to proper clinical areas, and answering telephones. Additional duties might include sorting mail and paperwork, updating electronic medical records and patient charts, validating insurance coverage and specialist referral authorization, handling insurance claim documents, scheduling patient appointments, adjusting work schedules to fit in emergency cases, getting ready to bring instruments for the physician, changing prescription pads, repairing the stethoscope, stocking the medical supply closet, disposing of infectious substance, mopping up spills, and administering medicines or remedies as directed.
Also, seasoned medical assistants can also show new employees and students on internship the basics inside their discipline’s scope of practice, and react properly to unforeseen medical emergencies. They can also be accountable for taking medical histories, logging vital signs, explaining treatment processes, preparing and positioning patients for examinations, and keeping the waiting area and examining rooms clean. In a bigger health care facility, they are often assigned specialized responsibilities, due to the abundance of them at the work place. In a smaller facility, on the other hand, they’ll have to perform all of the duties mentioned above.
Increasingly more jobs are being created for medical assistants every year. If you would like to have a vital part in holding a medical facility together and organized, while working with patients, this is the job for you. The success of each health care facility relies hugely on the medical assistants employed there, because they are the ones who are describing procedures to the patients as well as keeping track of medical history, appointments, and records.
A medical assistant is a trained professional who works in the health care field. Her job is to perform administrative and clinical chores in order to assist medical practitioner and other health care professionals. In order to become a good assistant in the medical field, you have to be patient, a good listener, an understanding individual, one who is able to work with people from different backgrounds, and be encouraging amongst others.
These assistants’ duties typically include both administrative chores and clinical chores. The administrative chores consist of answering phone, scheduling appointments, calling in prescriptions to a pharmacy as per doctor’s orders, bookkeeping, filing and updating patient’s medical files, filling out insurance forms and calling the insurance company to ensure the patient’s insurance is valid, medical billing, and arranging for hospital admissions and laboratory services.
The clinical chores include taking the patient’s medical history, taking vital signs which are blood pressure, pulse, temperature and respiration, collecting and preparing laboratory specimens, preparing and administering medication i.e. injecting the medication as per the medical practitioners orders, drawing patient’s blood for further tasting, sterilizing and wrapping medical instruments ,taking electrocardiograms, preparing patient for different tests such as x-rays, removing sutures and changing dressings amongst others.
The training courses for this profession are offered in some colleges and in many vocational-technical high schools. The program can take from one to two to years to complete depending on the program’s schedule. There are also some medical assistants who are trained on the job. Especially in a hospital, you will find that some certified nursing assistants end up being trained on the job to become assistants to medical professionals.
To apply for a medical assisting training program you must have a high school diploma or a GED. Some of the classes offered in the program are Computer Medical Application Laboratory, Urinalysis, Chemistry and Hematology Laboratory, Surgical Asepsis and Pharmacology, Laboratory, Electrocardiogram, Radiology and PT Laboratory, Keyboarding, Medical Terminology, Anatomy and Physiology, Document Procurement Laboratory, Word Processing Applications, Interpersonal skills and Medical Office Administration amongst others.
After the completion of the program, the assistant will need to get certified. The certification proves that the he or she has met certain standards of competence. Although certification is not mandatory, health care providers often look for assistants with certification to hire. Therefore, it is wise for anyone who is interested in this career to be certified.
There are several organizations that offer the certification. Two of these organizations are the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) and the American Medical Technologists (AMT).
The American Association of Medical Assistants offers the examination to candidates who have passed and graduated or about to graduate from accredited training programs. Once the candidate passes the certification examination, he or she would become a Certified Medical Assistant (CMA).
The American Medical Technologists offers registration of medical assistants. Once certified by the AMT, he or she would become a Registered Medical Assistant (RMA). This certification is offered to recent graduates, and those who trained on the job as assistants to medical professionals and have worked in that particular field for more than five years.
