How To Become A Medical Assistant – Working as a medical assistant involves rarely any dull moment. This role involves clinical and administrative duties combination. Hence any day can provide a challenge and a reward as well. Now the question is How To Become A Medical Assistant?

In all types of facilities, Medical assistants are needed. Hence being a medical assistant, you will be an important part of the healthcare team. From patients to doctors to pharmacists you will interact with everyone. Hence till the end of the blog, you will get to know about how to become a Medical Assistant.

Duties Of Medical Assistants

Medical Assistant has a multi-faceted role to play. While interacting with all types of people they are responsible for using a wide range of tools and technology. If you work in a specialized area of medicine your tasks may be different. Some of the duties a medical assistant needs to perform are scheduling appointments, managing medical records, billing and coding, take vital signs, record medical history, draw blood, prepare examination rooms, prepare patients for appointments, perform diagnostic tests, etc. 

Steps To Become Medical Assistant

These are some of the steps you need to follow to become a Medical Assistant.

Enroll In A Medical Assistant School

Be sure that the school you choose owns accreditation by one of the following accrediting agencies. You won’t be able to take professional certification exams without accreditation 

Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP)

Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES)

The choice of either certificate or associate degrees is offered by Medical Assistant Programs. Hence you must choose the program according to your career aspirations. 

Complete an Externship

Medical assistant schools typically require the students to complete an externship in addition to classroom learning. Before entering the working world, an Externship is only the way to get clinical experience. It is a kind of evaluation of what you have learned in the classroom. 

You will work with the professional medical assistants during an externship and will get hands-on real-life clinical setting experience. An externship allows you to ask questions, make connections in the field and develop skills. You may come across the situations like challenging tasks or difficult patients in the learning classroom but its first-hand experience can only be gained through an externship. 

Mostly the schools set up their children at a local clinic or medical facility for a practical experience. 

Get certified

Technically in the Medical assistant, you don’t need to be certified to work but many employees prefer it. All you need is to pass an exam irrespective of the certification you earn. You will be tested on different topics related to medical assisting. This will tell the employers about the knowledge you have about the field based on the credentials you have earned.

Different examination formats are:

• Registered Medical Assistant Exam (RMA): It contains 210 multiple-choice questions.
• Certified Medical Assistant Exam (CMA): It contains 200 multiple-choice questions.
• Certified Clinical Medical Assistant exam (CCMA): It contains 200 multiple-choice questions.
• Certified Medical Administrative Assistant exam (CMAA): It contains 100 multiple-choice questions.
• National Certified Medical Assistant exam (NCMA): It contains 150 multiple-choice questions.

Medical Assistant Day tasks

• Before Patient Arrival – Your work before the arrival of the patients will be doing paperwork and organizing the patient charts. Also, you need to prepare the examination room and refill the supplies. Also, you need to check the emails and the messages before the patients arrive. 
• After Patient Arrival – When the patient will arrive you will greet them and update their medical records and prepare them for the exams and schedule appointments. 
• At the end of the day –  At the end of the day, you need to wrap up by answering the returning phone calls, completing paperwork, etc. also exam rooms and sterilizing equipment needs to be clean by the Medical assistants. 

Conclusion

Hence these are the steps to become a medical assistant. You need to follow the same procedure if you wish to get into the field. 

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