Medical Assistant Training For a Career Change

There are many medical personnel involved in any health care environment and medical assistants are one group. They are usually considered the physician’s ‘right hand’. A medical assistant training involves preparing the medical assistant to assist the physician in both clinical and clerical duties.

Clinical duties

The training molds the assistants in handling clinical duties such as preparing patients for treatments and examinations, taking blood pressure, pulse and temperature readings, administer medication, perform phlebotomy, performing x-rays, electrocardiograms and other medical procedures, sterilizing medical equipment and getting involved in minor clinic surgery.

Clerical duties

The training also equips the assistants to take on clerical duties such as maintaining medical records and patients’ scheduling, attending to phone calls and being responsible for billing, collection and making any insurance claims.

Community college training

As there are two aspects to the post of a medical assistant, a proper training structure is crucial to equip the interested individuals to handle the necessary workload. Training can be found in community colleges or technology or vocational schools. The training from the community colleges usually take 2 years at the end of which an associate degree is awarded.

In this training, you will learn about the anatomy, terminologies in the medical arena, insurance coding, administrative and lab procedures as well as office management as related to the medical arena with word processing skills, for the clerical duties expected of a medical assistant.

Progression into administrative position

On completion of the training, the MA can consider administrative or management posts with some training as well as experience. Formal education is not compulsory at this point of the MA career.

They can become certified or registered through a certification exam. On completion of your medical assistant training, you can venture in a degree in various health care related areas or move on to a nursing degree.

MA Expected salary

The paying rate of a medical assistant is about $13-$14 per hour. This is quite a reasonable pay for about 40 hours per week which includes weekends. The work environment is clean and conducive with a flexible work schedule.

Assistants can be found in doctor’s offices, clinics, hospitals and health care organizations. There are also perks and other benefits that can entice an individual to a medical assistant training for a lucrative career.