This is an example:
St. Augustine Educational Services on the Internet AKA St. Augustine Medical Assistant School—advertised on the Internet as an accredited medical assistant online school. Please know that the article reflects only, and solely our own opinion. If there is anything you'd like to share or add to this article, please feel free to do so. Please utilize the "add comment" button below.
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St. Augustine Medical Assistant School!
St. Augustine Educational Services is one example where exercising extreme caution before signing up for medical assistant training is advised. Only because St. Augustine Educational Services is a heavy advertiser on the search engines and ranks high it does not automatically mean that their program is right for medical assistant students educational and professional needs.
St. Augustine Educational Services is a school on the Internet that offers medical assistant classes through distance education online. Cost: $645 -- Non-refundable! Their main web site (one of many) is located at medassistant.org. However, to raise their online presence and recruitment of students into their medical assistant distance education and training program this website is interlinked with a broad network of other websites.
As Posted on St. Augustine's Home Page:"An Accredited, Convenient and Affordable Online Distance Education ProgramYou can now study online to earn an accredited Medical Assistant Certificate in just 6-8 weeks!"
St. Augustine Educational Services describes their online school as a worldwide leader in online medical assistant education and proclaims to be an accredited medical assistant school. In the past their web site indicated that that they were a school in Florida which may lead to confusion since there also is the University of St. Augustine in St. Augustine, Florida (especially with the added image of a building that resembles a southern university campus). However, this reference has now been removed from their web site. See archived web page!
Once visitors start to dig through their web pages and drill deeper into their site they find a page (not easy to find!) that explains what St. Augustine Educational Services really is: St. Augustine Educational Services is a business located in the British Virgin Islands and accredited by a private non-government agency called “The Certification Board”.
The Certification Board through which St. Augustine Medical Assistant School is accredited is based in Owensboro, Kentucky. Anyone can join over the Internet for a one-time fee of $200! Upon completion of their distance education program St. Augustine Educational Services issues nothing more, nothing less than a certificate of completion, which is a simple piece of paper imprinted "Certificate of Completion" with the student's name.
Read more details every student should know
about St. Augustine's classes
before
signing up at: http://www.medassistant.org/Info.html
In Conclusion:
Students who sign up for medical assistant or other allied health professional related vocational training are urged to seek out properly accredited programs that meet national standards, make them eligible to sit for the national certification exams, and lead to higher education, and/or a degree. Over the past years recognized national certification and accreditation agencies and sponsors have become very engaged in providing quality education, professional membership support, and building awareness among educators, employers, supervisors, and students about the importance of attending proper accredited schools and programs.
• National Healthcareer Association (NHA)
• American Medical Technologists (AMT)
• American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA)
For example, the AAMA's Certified Medical Assistant (CMA), AMT's Registered Medical Assistant (RMA) certification, and/or NHA's Certified Clinical Medical Assistant (CCMA) and Certified Administrative Medical Assistant (CMAA) certification exams are available ONLY for qualified candidates from properly accredited schools. Anyone with questions can go to these organization's websites to find more information on the certification process.
Unless potential medical assistant students understand the difference between fully accredited vs. the multitude of gray-area, non-accredited, and flat-out illegitimate vocational training programs offered online, they might be in for a rude awakening, when after having successfully completed the course they find out that they have virtually nothing to show for their money and efforts. Even worse: that they are not permitted to sit for any of the professional certification exams!
It is extremely important that anybody who seeks vocational training graduates from courses that are approved and accredited by the RIGHT agencies, such as the United States Board of Education, the US Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), the US Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), the US Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES) and other governmental agencies and regulatory organizations, such as Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).
Comments -------------------------------
A comment that was previously added to the article below, but then deleted:
Quote: "I would like to see more info on St Augustine they claim they are accredited by an organization called “The Certification Board” It is totally phony website address at www.acertification.org". Here is the information about St. Augustine's accreditation agency from the WhoIs Name Intelligence, Inc. database. Anyone interested in finding out more details about St. Augustine's accreditation status here is the contact information:
- Web site: acertification.org
- Title: National Accreditation and Certification Board
- Description: Offers accreditation for alternative health programs, colleges and graduates.
- Based in Owensboro, Kentucky.
- Domain Name: ACERTIFICATION.ORG
- Sponsoring Registrar: Intercosmos Media Group Inc.
- Registrant Name: Steve Rusher
- Registrant Organization: American Mystery Cat INC.
- Registrant Street: 358 East Main Street
- Registrant City: Fordsville
- Registrant State/Province: KY
- Registrant Postal Code: 42343
- Registrant Country: US
- Registrant Phone: 270.276.5384
© 2005 Advanced Medical Assistant Custom Web Design, LLC.
2 comments:
Nice to finally know where to place Dr. Jeff Andrews, aka SRSPsych@aol.com. He is listed with St. Augustine. Surprise, surprise.
It's a small world indeed.
Hi,
The disadvantages of LPN programs that you can do online are obviously the fact that you will not be going through the work that needs to be covered with the guidance of a lecturer that you can ask questions etc. But there are other disadvantages of doing the whole course at home on your computer .
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