Medical Assistant In A Specialty Focus Area

medical specialty

Web definitions
medicine: the branches of medical science that deal with nonsurgical techniques

Medicine and health care encompass many specialties and subspecialties. A skilled medical assistant with sufficient basic training in all clinical, administrative and general areas of the discipline should be able to fit into any of these with additional training. 

A quality medical assistant vocational training program build the foundation for medical assistant school graduates to enter into family medicine, internal medicine (subspecialties include cardiology, gastroenterology, hematology, allergy and immunology, etc), sports medicine, pediatrics, physical medicine and rehabilitation (pain medicine) and many more. There is a plethora of different choices; the possibilities are countless.

If you are a fully qualified medical assistant and your goal is to work in a certain medical specialty area or a certain type of medical office you can prepare yourself by taking the following steps:

• Networking - network with people who are already working in that specialty
• Workshops - attend specialty focused workshops and job seminars
• Studying- concentrate your studies toward your chosen direction
• Volunteering - volunteer at community health center

Let's say you would like to apply your skills in the specialty area of dermatology, it may be expected of you that :

1. you understand the anatomy and pathology of the integumentary system
2. you are familiar with routine diagnostic tests and treatments for skin disorders
3. you are able to assist the doctor during routine and special examinations of the skin
4. you are able to explain the diagnosis and plan of care in simple terms to the patients
5. you can correctly apply prescribed treatments, such as ointments, bandages, and dressings

To find a medical assistant school near you
visit Medical Assistant NET.

Medical Assistant Student Notes - A Blast From The Past

I attended the medical assisting vocational training program at Porter and Chester Vocational Training Institute in 1998 to become a fully qualified medical assistant. At that time, Porter and Chester had a campus in Stratford, Watertown, Enfield, and Weathersfield, Connecticut and Chicopee, Massachusetts, only one of many accredited schools in my area. Their program focuses on the clinical and administrative skills of this occupation. 

I sat for the Certified Medical Assistant (CMA) certification exam conducted by the AAMA immediately upon my successful graduation from the program, which had earned me my Medical Assistant diploma. 

I just found some of my old study notes and decided to scan some of them into my PC. Here is my illustration of the muscular system, anterior view (front).

Muscular system, anterior view

Muscular system, posterior view

I especially enjoyed anatomy and physiology (A & P) and medical terminology class. I took elaborate notes and added artful illustrations. My instructor was always very impressed and often annotated my work with excellent, and have you considered going into medical illustration.

The shoulder joint (illustration)

 Another subject I truly enjoyed was medical transcription and practicing writing our own clinical notes in different formats, such as the SOAP note. Here are a couple of my SOAP note writing exercises, corrected by my instructor. Those who wish to learn a bit more about SOAP note writing can check my website at http://www.medicalassistant.net/Skills/soap_note.html.