Quantcast
Viewing latest article 2
Browse Latest Browse All 10

A Day-in-the-Life of a Medical Assistant

A Day-in-the-Life of a Medical Assistant

If you enjoy working with people and are interested in patient care, being a medical assistant may be the right career for you.

A medical assistant performs many tasks to help a health care clinic run smoothly, including prescription drug refills, scheduling of medical exams and tests for patients, taking the height, weight, blood pressure, and other vital statistics of patients who come in, administering injections, and otherwise assisting the physician that they work under.

Being a medical assistant requires good people skills, good typing skills, knowledge of medical terminology and basic medical procedures, and good work ethics. A medical assistant must work with other people including patients, doctors, pharmacy workers, and doctors at other clinics that they may need to refer patients to.

A typical day as a medical assistant requires eight to ten hours of work, much of which requires you to be on your feet. Longer shifts may be necessary depending on the number of patients; this number increases during the times of year when illness is more common or a lot of people need physicals.

To become a medical assistant, there is more than one degree route that you can take. You can be a Certified Medical Assistant or a Registered Medical Assistant. The median annual wages of a medical assistant were $29,760 annually in 2009, or $13.87 per hour.

Information gathered from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A Medical Office Assistant has different duties than a Medical Assistant. While a Medical Assistant has a more hands-on job with the patients as well as office communication duties, a Medical Office Assistant takes care of things like patient scheduling and insurance billing.

It is possible to work as a Medical Office Assistant or Medical Assistant to make money and gain valuable experience with patient care while you are continuing your medical training, such as getting continuing education to be a Registered Nurse or a Physician Assistant. The job market for Medical Assistants, Medical Office Assistants, nurses, and other health practitioners is growing. The job market for these types of workers is expected to grow 20% or more by 2018; this increase is described as being much higher than the average projected growth.

For more information on medical assistant colleges, medical assistant frequently asked questions, and medical assistant information

Incoming search terms for the article:


Viewing latest article 2
Browse Latest Browse All 10

Trending Articles