When you think medical assistant what to you envision? Most people think managing the front desk and filing reports is all that medical assistants do. This of course is highly possible but that is just a small fraction to what they really do. Medical assistants are both highly trained in administration as well clinical work. Being a highly trained medial assistant means you are trained in lab procedures, patient care, lab procedures and pharmacology. They are very diverse and fill many important rolls in the health care industry.
Almost every health care facility will have some difference in training and procedures. However, there are some things that are just universal to the profession. This is some of the common duties preformed daily as a medical assistant.
Duties of a Medical Assistant:
Please remember each and every state has there own rules on each medical profession and medical assistants are not exempt from this. This is just some of what you would be doing as a assistant.
- Recording patient vital signs
- Administering patient medications
- Drawing the patients blood
- Assisting the doctor or physician during exams
- Preparing the patients for the exams
- Authorizing or calling in refills for patients (directed by prescriber)
- Taking EKG’s of the patients
- Taking patients medical histories
This is just a few thinks that are possible during the daily routine of a medical assistant. As you can see you will need training of a very wide rang of specialties but don’t worry this will all be covered in your medical assistant schooling or medical assistant program.
Of course being a diverse medical assistant mean you will be working with doctors and other professionals every day. The diversity needed to be a medical assistant means you are someone that can work easily with many different personalities of people. You are someone that can get along easily with everyone and you have a outgoing personality. You are someone that can easily multitask and move between tasks with ease. Remember you could be helping a physician with something and then the next moment you are helping a patient with getting ready for some labs or checking in someone and helping with there medical history.
But let’s not forget that with all the clinical duties, medical assistants also take care of the front office or administration functions as well.
MA Administrative Duties:
A great MA or medical assistant needs to be a flexile person. What I mean is they need to be able to go from clinical to administrative and back quickly and easily. Training in the following areas like above is varied from state to state.
- Scheduling appointments either by phone or in person
- Ordering patients labs
- Updating the patients records
- Bookkeeping and accounting
- Medical billing
- Working with patients insurance
Of course with these kinds of admin duties you must be knowledgeable in different programs. You might have one program for bookkeeping, another for corresponding with insurance companies and maybe something like excel for scheduling appointments with patients. So some basic computer knowledge will be a must in the medical assistant industry. Don’t work though if you struggle with some of this, it will all be gone over and studied in your medical assistant school or medical assistant program or learned on the job.
In some cases I’ve seen that different doctor’s offices handle specific things different then other doctor’s offices. In this case sometimes a computer isn’t even necessary and a lot of the assistant’s duties are taught on the job. In any case you will receive in one way or another all the training necessary to become a wonderful medical assistant.
In some of the larger hospital settings you can choose some of the roles of the medical assistant that you feel you are more comfortable with. For example, if you don’t like computer work that well and excel in working with the patient, you will for sure be focusing on clinical duties over administrative ones or just the opposite.
Different Medical Assistant Jobs:
We have covered most of this but medical assistants work in a variety of health care jobs. Your school can help you with the job hunting tasks. Most Medical Assistant Schools have some kind of relationship with different employers out there, helping you find a job after you complete your schooling.
After graduation you can start looking for work in:
- Clinics
- Hospitals
- Medical Offices
- Insurance Companies
- Home Care Facilities
- Urgent Care Buildings
- Pharmaceutical Companies
That is just a few of the possible employment opportunities out there for you. Once you complete your schooling, your school will help you network with many different employers that you will be able to sent your resumes to.
So if a diverse and challenging career that is every changing daily is what you are looking for, then becoming a medical assistant is the right career for you.