Looking Info About Medical Assistant Careers?According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, medical assistant careers are growing much faster than average and medical assistants have excellent job prospects. If you are looking for a career opportunity in a growing field, this just might be the one for you. Medical Assistant careers involve helping doctors to care for patients, as well as helping out to make sure the office runs smoothly. Greeting patients, taking medical histories, telling patients about any special instructions from the physician, collecting specimens, filling out paperwork and other basic administrative duties, checking vital signs, preparing medications, and arranging for hospital admissions are some of the many and varied duties handled as part of Medical Assistant careers. Most medical assistants work in the offices of physicians, general medical and surgical hospitals, offices of other health professionals, and outpatient care facilities. If this kind of work appeals to you, the first thing you need to do is look into the required training for Medical Assistant careers. There are hundreds of training programs around the United States for Medical Assistant careers, including two online programs that are certified by the American Association of Medical Assistants. Any training program you choose should be certified by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP). You can find out more about the various certified training programs for Medical Assistant careers at the CAAHEP website, including a list of all the certified programs. Training programs for Medical Assistant careers usually involve one to two years of coursework and an externship, and are mainly offered by junior colleges, technical schools, community colleges, and vocational schools. Coursework usually covers some medical coursework as well as some administrative training, as medical assistant careers consist of both types of work. Once you have selected and completed a certified training program for Medical Assistant careers, you should look into getting either certified by the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) through taking their exam, or getting registered by the American Registry of Medical Assistants through their membership process, which includes a recommendation from either the training program you attended or your employer. In order to keep registered or certified as a Medical Assistant, you will need to pay the annual dues of whichever organization you choose, as well as earn continuing education credits to keep your knowledge up to date. Those who are certified or registered medical assistants have more opportunities in their Medical Assistant careers than those who do not choose to belong to one of these organizations. Those in Medical Assistant careers make a median annual salary of $28,270. Salaries for those in Medical Assistant careers varies from place to place and from industry to industry, with those working in state government offices and the District of Columbia earning the highest salaries. Salaries for Medical Assistant Careers also increase as more experience is gained by the practitioner. |