Medical Assistant Career – Opening Doors To A Profession In Healthcare Services

Medical Assistant Career – Opening doors to a profession in healthcare services.

Medical Assistant careers are gathering demand in the background of a healthcare industry boom worldwide.

A Medical Assistant essentially is a healthcare professional with multiple responsibilities and skill sets required to execute the same. Both administrative and medical tasks that do not need much medical proficiency fall into the ambit of a Medical Assistant.

Medical Assistants are indispensable in any modern day healthcare practice. Engaged under physicians, podiatrists, chiropractors, and other health practitioners. Medical Assistants attend to the complexities involved in delivering medical services.

By accomplishing administrative and other responsibilities, Medical Assistants make it easier for the practitioners to concentrate on attending to and treating patients.

Medical Assistants execute varied administrative, laboratory and clinical tasks in different health care institutions.

Often, Medical Assistants are seen as generalists who are involved with many aspects of the medical profession but do not specialize in them.

A detailed overview of the activities of a Medical Assistant is given here:

Administrative duties:

  • General administration which includes day-to-day activities and other tasks. These include:
  • Communication – both internal and external and office correspondence.
  • Patient welfare – maintenance of patient records, insurance forms, scheduling appointments, arranging for hospital admission.
  • Billing and bookkeeping.
  • Maintain medical and drug supplies.

Clinical duties:

  • Clinical duties require discreet manual dexterity and visual acuity. A Medical Assistant has to support the medical practitioner with the following:
  • Recording vital signs.
  • Preparing patients for examination, explaining treatment procedures to patients.
  • Assisting the physician during the examination.
  • Instructing patients about medications and special diets.
  • Preparation and administration of medications.

Laboratory tasks:

  • Laboratory tasks include:
  • Collection and preparation of laboratory specimens.
  • Performing basic laboratory tests on the premises.
  • Draw blood, prepare patients for X-rays, take electrocardiograms, remove sutures and change dressings.
  • Disposal of contaminated supplies and sterilization of medical instruments.
  • Medical Assistants employed at small medical outfits may undertake both administrative and clinical duties and report directly to the office manager or health practitioner.
  • Larger medical outfits have Medical Assistants reporting to department administrators and specializing only in a particular area.

Medical Assistant – Essential qualities and skills:

  • Duties entailed in medical assisting vary with the type of health care facility, size, location and specialisation.
  • A pleasant disposition is a must as Medical Assistants constantly interact with patients and public. Courteous manners, a well groomed personality and an aptitude for making people feel at ease are essential.
  • Simple medical and clinical skills and administrative abilities are integral to the profile of a Medical Assistant.
  • Traditionally, Medical Assistants did not need to be certified as they learnt on the job. This scenario has changed and contemporary medical practices prefer trained and certified Medical Assistant professionals to untrained individuals.

Medical Assistant Training and Certification:

  • Healthcare industry is increasingly in favour of trained Medical Assistants. The need for technically sound personnel who have the flexibility of handling both clinical and administrative tasks is on the rise. The trend is an offshoot of the need felt by doctors to concentrate on treating patients rather than on other functional details.
  • Certification is a mark of the individual having been trained and qualified in the profession.
  • A Medical Assistant certificate stands as a certainty of successful training. Also, securing a Medical Assistant certificate assures higher professional satisfaction and recognition. Compared to uncertified individuals, the formal education and the Medical Assistant certificate help them in advance faster in their profession.
  • The Medical Assistant certificate can be secured by both experienced and inexperienced individuals. Experienced professionals may not have to take a certification exam. Inexperienced candidates though will have to undergo rigorous training from an accredited vocational training institution.
  • Medical Assistant certification or registration will put the individual a step ahead from counterparts.
  • Medical Assistant registration and certification are the same. It’s just that different certifying bodies have different terms for referring to a Medical Assistant cerificate.
  • With many Medical Assistant schools mushrooming in the market, it is important that one acquires education and secures Medical Assistant registration from a reputed and reliable source.