6 Things No One Told You About Being a Medical Assistant

Medical assistants are a valuable resource to the healthcare system and the demand for them continues to increase year after year. Despite the growing popularity, lots of mystery and intrigue surrounds this exciting, versatile, highly rewarding and yet, relatively unknown medical career.

As a medical assistant, you will need to perform a multitude of tasks on a daily basis, that require both clinical and administrative knowledge and cross training. It’s because of this unique administrative and clinical cross-training that make medical assistants some of the most versatile healthcare employees in the industry today.

Administrative duties may include:

· Greeting patients and checking them in.

· Answering phones and scheduling appointments.

· Coding and filling out insurance forms.

· Updating and filing medical records.

· Billing and bookkeeping.

Clinical duties may include:

· Taking patient vitals and asking them about their medical history.

· Drawing blood and giving injections.

· Performing diagnostic tests, such as EKGs.

· Collecting samples and conducting basic lab testing.

· Removing sutures and dressing wounds.

2. Medical Assistants Run the Office

Although the receptionist and front office staff may have a lot of control over how things operate, it’s the medical assistant who usually controls patient flow from the waiting room into the physician’s office. Medical assistants communicate between the front and back office and are responsible for moving patients from one area to the other. In some small practices, the medical assistant might even run the front and back office duties entirely on their own, from greeting and checking in patients to performing clinical duties, such as taking patient vital signs and assisting the doctor during the patient’s exam.

3. Medical Assisting is a Family Friendly Career

It’s a common belief that any job in the healthcare field equates to long, irregular hours, but that isn’t the case for MAs. One of the many perks of becoming a medical assistant, is that many of them work a standard 40-hour work week, making it the ideal fit for someone with a family who is looking for a predictable work schedule.

4. Medical Assistants Have Options to Specialize

One of the many appealing aspects of becoming a medical assistant is the variety. Medical assistants work with every kind of physician you can think of, giving an MA the unique opportunity to choose a specialty if they wish.

5. Medical Assisting is a Stand-Alone Career

While medical assisting is quickly gaining traction as a popular career choice, not many people are aware that medical assisting can make a rewarding and fulfilling career choice for the long haul, versus simply being known as a stepping stone into another medical career. While it’s true that there are plenty of advancement opportunities for medical assistants, and it’s also true that it can make for a great starting point into another medical career, medical assisting can also be the perfect stand-alone career.

6. It Doesn’t Take Years of Training to Become a Medical Assistant

The most exciting aspect of becoming a medical assistant is that it doesn’t take very long compared to other healthcare careers. Many medical assisting programs are designed for completion in two years or less, or in some cases, such as Athena Career Academy’s accredited medical assisting program, takes less than one year to complete.

For being such a stable, versatile and highly in demand career, it’s amazing to think that someone could literally change their entire life in only a year or less by simply becoming a medical assistant. Contact our admissions team today for more information about enrolling in the next class!