Question: Which Medical Assistant is Better?

Every year thousands of new and experienced medical assistants applying for jobs are asked to show potential employers reliable documentation of their education, training, knowledge and skills, despite the fact that not every highly skilled and qualified medical assistant is always certified.

Most employers now expect 1-3 years job experience and certifications, or else they are hesitant to hire. However, does certification automatically mean that one medical assistant is better than another? For instance, is a recent graduate from a medical assistant school with certification better qualified than an applicant who received his/her medical assisting and first aid training in the Military and has worked in the health care field for many consecutive years without ever getting certified?


Please comment! Which medical assistant do YOU think is better? To learn more about the medical assisting career please visit Medical Assistant NET on the Web.

Difference Between Medical Assistant and Nurse Work Schedule

A Medical Assistant works different hours, usually first shift, from 8-5 PM and rarely on weekends or holidays, which some feel are better hours for parents. Nurses work different shifts around the clock. Some pull doubles and they usually must work on weekends and holidays, at least some.

Medical assistants are utilized in different capacities in the administrative, laboratory, or clinical areas, depending on the office's specific needs. Very small family practices may have the expectation that the medical assistant covers all areas, front and back. They often specialize in pediatrics, general practice, gynecology, dermatology, rheumatology, podiatry, or ophthalmology, etc.! Check the jobs in your area to see who is hiring medical assistants and who is hiring LPN's and for which kind of areas. While it may not apply to all positions you may find that the expectations, duties and responsibilities are generally the same for both, medical assistants and LPNs when medical offices recruit their staff.

Other significant differences:

• wages
• hours
• duties
• responsibilities
• scope of practice
• supervision

Medical assistants are often preferred by doctors in private, or group practices, because they are more cost effective than RN's or LPN's; but then again, each discipline has its specific place and uses in different settings.

Medical Assistant Training

Teaching Medical Assistant Skills

Medical Assistants must know a wide variety of skills pertaining to medical office administration routines and clinical tasks revolving around patient intake procedures, patient record management, medical history taking, setting up EKG s, spirometry, immunizations, blood draws, charting, measuring orthopedic fittings and such. Some situations may involve bio-hazard risks where Universal Standard Precautions must be practiced to protect themselves, their patients and coworkers from harm.

Medical assistant training programs vary. Most medical assistant training can be completed quickly at a career school or college in your city. Whether you are looking for classroom-based learning, morning, or evening classes, or online courses to suit your busy schedule we can help you find the right medical assistant training program that leads to desired medical assistant certificates and diplomas right here. To find medical assistant training near you complete the School-Finder form. You can browse though your area's vocational training schools, explore various training avenues and request more information from the institutions that interest you.

13 Incredibly Easy Steps to Becoming a Perfect Medical Assistant?

Are You Looking for 13 Incredibly Easy Steps to Becoming a Perfect Medical Assistant?

You are right, of course I am exaggerating! There is no such thing as easy recipe for making the perfect medical assistant; in fact, it takes hard work, interest, uniqueness and a dedication that comes from deep within. Some medical assistant students may think it all starts on the job in a medical office, where the medical assistant works diligently side by side with the physician and other health care professionals, applying all skills learned. But nothing could be further from the truth: Becoming a (well, okay... almost perfect) medical assistant and future success BEGINS with the right attitude in the class room and then CONTINUES later on at the work place.

Below are thirteen real-world tips that helped me personally to make my medical assistant school days enjoyable and successfully graduate:

1. "Hello, my name is Danni!" Introduce yourself to your classmates and instructors. You don't want to just be a face in the crowd.
2. "Front row? No way!" Do it! Sit in the front row! Most study groups form from those you associate with during classes. Sit in the front row with the students who are, or want to be brilliant.
3. "Yikes, I don't want a partner!" Really??? Select your lab partner with care and once you found a good match, practice, practice, practice together to solidify every simple and the most challenging skills (injection, blood draw, urinalysis anybody?).
4. What is your image? During even the most boring lecture look interested. The secret of a good image is striving to be that which you wish to appear. Learning how to deal properly with a boring situation, or a person that is boring is a good skill to cultivate in any discipline.
5. Get the most from your textbooks! Take your materials out of your house to study. Get away from distractions, undone dishes, radio and TV. (Tip: the doughnut shop or all night cafe will offer ample amounts of coffee).
6. Read nursing journals and medical assistant magazines. Often current articles will compliment your text and make the information more easily understood. Use individual sheets of paper or large index cards to make a file of disease/conditions and their treatments. List etiology, signs and symptoms, diagnostic tests, interventions, etc. and keep them in a binder for future reference as well as present study.
7. Take notes from your notes! After taking notes in class or from a book, put away the book and bring out a tape recorder and outline your notes so you can listen to them. A great way to also practice your medical terminology words. Also, turn course objectives as found in the beginning of each chapter of your workbook into questions - presto, instant study guide.
8. Name that thing! My medical assisting instructor during my medical assistant training amazed me! On the second day of class she single-handedly greeted every new student, about 30, by their first and last name (amazing!). However, if you are more like me and one of those who have trouble remembering names, protocols, lab values, or terminology write them down on index cards and keep them in your pocket. It works - take them with you everywhere you go! The more you use them the more you will solidify them.
9. If you can get your hands on them, use old CMA or RMA exam review materials as your study guide. Sort questions by topic as you go through school and study those questions pertaining to your current lesson. It will help you learn and give you a head start  when it's time to schedule your final examinations.
10. Clinical lab - Yippeee! Be helpful to the clinical lab instructor and work with your classmates toward the common goals. Practice taking all the different vital signs, never contradict publicly, don't interrupt with constant repeat questions (that's what you have instructors for!) and don't make your instructor hold your hand. Even if you're scared and have never done something before, jump in and follow instructions. If you don't know how to do a procedure, look it up, check the protocols, ask for additional help. Instructors would rather be "bothered" walking you through the procedure than fixing the mess if you do something wrong.
11. Thrive in clinical lab classes! Appreciate even the simplest things, such as how to properly greet a patient. Whether you are a complete novice, or have already been in another allied health career for  years, remember everyone begins at different levels. Focus on where you are going - not on how much you already know.
12. "1-2-3, deep breath!" In Venipuncture practice, take a moment to center yourself before working on somebody's arm. Most people respond best to a calm focused approach. Study your instructors. 
13. The more you know them the more likely you are to understand them and what they are expecting from you. Adjust your attitude, buy a good personal planner and log all projects, deadlines and tests in it. Plan a realistic schedule and follow it.

To learn more about the medical assisting career please visit Medical Assistant NET on the Web.

What Needs to be in the Medical Assistant's Resume?

Most medical assistant students and new graduate are nervous, flustered and unsure how to write an effective resume to apply for medical assistant jobs. Did the medical assistant program fail to prepare them? Were they absent during this module? Or did the topic simply overwhelm them? Regardless, what are the most important items that new medical assistant grads must add to their resume to apply for a medical assistant job?

Medical Assistant On the Job Training vs. Formal Vocational Training

Medical assistant on the job training

Medical Assistant Training Options

Medical assistants can obtain their job skills either though eclectic or individualized teaching at vocational training institutions, from online medical assistant self-study programs, or through direct on the job training. On the job training for medical assistants typically focuses only on the skills that need to be handled. 

Benefits of Either on the Job Training - Or Academic...

The benefit is that this informal training counts as direct hands-on experience, while also getting paid. On the other hand, formal voc-ed training programs provide medical assistant school graduates with a diploma, or transferable academic degree and qualifies them to sit for certain medical assistant certification exams.