How Long is Athena's MA Program?

If you're looking for a stable career where you won't have to worry about limited job availability and would like to find something where you can make a difference in people's lives, then you might be considering a career in the medical and health industry. Unfortunately, a lot of people assume that you have to go to school for years on end in order to be qualified to work as a medical professional. This isn't always true, especially in the case of medical assistants.

Medical Assistant Program Length

If you look around a little and compare medical assistant programs, you'll find that they tend to vary in length. For example, community colleges often have medical assistant programs that take two years to complete in order to obtain an associate's degree. Other community colleges, as well as technical schools and vocational schools, may offer programs that can be completed within a year.

Here at Athena Career Academy, our medical assistant program will only take you 7 1/2 months (along with six weeks or 800 hours of study) to complete. This includes externship experience, which requires 160 hours to complete. Traditional medical assisting classes will require 640 hours to complete. Following the completion of those classes, our students will either take an additional two classes (or 80 hours) in phlebotomy or billing and coding. Once you complete our program, you'll be able to (and be properly prepared for) the American Medical Technologist (AMT) national exams for Registered Medical Assistants (RMA).

Our Medical Assistant Classes

Medical assistants have a variety of responsibilities, which is why our program consists of a variety of different courses, including classes that focus on employment dynamics, business English, medical terminology, body structures and functions, ICD coding, computerized billing, electronic health records, pharmacology, diagnostics, phlebotomy, diagnostic laboratory skills, clinical medical assisting, and more.

Students will also participate in a 160-hour externship in a professional medical or office setting in which they will perform both clinical and administrative duties. During the course of their externship, they will be supervised and evaluated by representatives from the site as well as from our campus.

Why Choose a Shorter Program

There are two main benefits to choosing a medical assistant program that can be completed in a shorter period of time. They include the following:

• Financial constraints - You may not be able to afford to go to school for two years for a variety of reasons. First of all, the cost of completing the program isn't limited to just tuition. The longer a program takes, the more money you're spending completing it. For example, you may not be able to work while you're completing the program, which means that the longer it takes, the less income you're generating, which makes it difficult for students who are supporting a family.
  
  
• Get started on your career quicker - There's a big advantage to finishing the program quickly and getting started on your career right away. By the time you would have been finished with a two-year program, you may already have over a year of experience in the field under your belt, which means you'll have more opportunities to advance your career or continue your education sooner rather than later.

If you're thinking about pursuing a career as a medical assistant, then you'll want to take into account the time it takes to complete a medical assistant program. You'll find that it takes less than a year to complete our medical assistant program at Athena Career Academy. For more information about enrolling in our medical assistant program, be sure to contact us at Athena Career Academy.