Medical assisting remains among the most in demand careers. We introduce you to every imaginable aspect of this rewarding discipline among healthcare professionals and give you real case scenarios of typical daily medical office routines and duties.

The Medical Assistant

The medical assistant is a fully integrated, non-licensed member of the medical office team with duties that are distinct from the practice of medicine, dentistry and nursing. They work side-by-side with doctors, practicing clinicians and other allied health professionals in various assistive and supporting positions essential to the medical office, handling daily office routines ranging from clinical, to administrative and managerial responsibilities. In the past, medical assistants were directly trained on the job by the doctor who hired them to assist them directly in their medical practice on a clinical and administrative level. Today, many are formally trained through vocational training programs, which are readily available to every one, from new high school graduates, to senior adults. The modern medical assistant is mobile, flexible, and hired into many different positions where ever there is a need for ambulatory patient services and care.

What you need to know about becoming a medical assistant and succeed in this rapidly growing field among healthcare professionals.

What is a Medical Assistant?

An increasing number of doctors are replacing their Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN) with skilled medical assistants. They have discovered that a medical assistant is sufficiently qualified to meet their practice's needs. While undoubtedly, nursing staff is always a great asset to any medical office, you increasingly find that there are now at least 1-2 medical assistants for each nurse on the team, one in the front and reception area and another one in the clinical area assisting the doctor in the back.

Get Your Medical Assistant On:

Medical assistants are employed in a wide range of disciplines within the healthcare system and can be found in large and small medical practices, preventive care clinics, therapy and rehabilitation centers affiliated with hospitals, vision care and optical stores, laboratories, pharmacies, alternative medical service centers, even veterinary and dentist's offices, college campuses, correctional institutions and various other types of private and public facilities where ambulatory, emergency, medical and health care services are provided.

Affordable training and education avenues for those wishing to become a medical assistant are readily available everywhere:

If you want to pursue this rewarding career, your objective is to find a quality training program in your area that meets your expectations and needs. Medical assistant schools are found everywhere throughout the USA and Canada and can often be completed in just 9-11 months. It is the position of the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) that, in order to protect the public and employers from substandard healthcare and medical services, medical assistants should be graduates of a recognized postsecondary, programmatically-accredited medical assisting program.

Most community colleges and vocational training institutions provide medical assistant training programs that meet these standards, and also, meet aspiring medical assistant student's budgets and schedules trough morning, afternoon, and evening classes. Some schools offer their program completely online, all leading to the same outcome: learning the skills needed to work as a qualified medical assistant. Most programs are relatively low cost, especially for those who qualify for student loans.

Those who qualify for government funded vocational rehab programs, educational grants, or are hired to be trained directly on the job get their medical assistant training completely free. This type of hands-on instruction under the watchful eye of the doctor is an excellent way to get free medical assistant training while also working as a member of the medical office team and getting paid for it. The only thing you might have to pay out of your own pocket are your scrubs, your lunch, transportation and the babysitter.

Qualifications and Expectations

Candidates for a medical office position are expected to be in good physical health, alert, able to remain on their feet for several hours without a break, good hand and eye coordination, and excellent near vision to read and see details at close range, such as on buttons, calibration markings on a syringe, small print on medication labels, pharmacy medication bottle inserts, skin changes, and blood vessels to draw blood. They must be able to communicate well with others, provide excellent customer services, and fit in with a professional group and work as member of the team where they participate in face-to-face discussions with doctors, nurses and their colleagues.

Aspiring medical assistants must understand that employers set their own standards and determine how much they will pay:

A medical assistant starting salary in an allergy and asthma specialty office in Massachusetts, or Connecticut can be as much as $18.00 an hour, while income in a general family practice in another state my be considerably less. It is important to remember that while employers have certain expectations, they are also willing to offer competitive wages to attract and retain their most valued staff. Your earnings will depend on the location, your experience, skill level, ambitions, performance, and the value that YOU add to the office.

National Average Medical Assistant Salary

While average national wages jumped from $22.08 to $23.12 USD per hour, the average pay for medical assistants increased from $26,620 to $28,710, the equivalent to an average hourly wage of $14.36. The longer you stay on board the more your medical assistant wages will increase. You may also receive valuable benefits, such as paid leave time, employment sponsored savings plan, tuition reimbursement and retirement plans where the doctor matches a percentage of your contributions to your retirement account.

*We believe that medical assistants today can add at least $2,000 to $4,000 in earnings per year to the annual national average wage figures in the above table, which are May 2008 figures from the Department of Labor (BLS) website. A medical assistant's take home pay depends largely on the amount of experience, location, size of the practice and specializations. As medical assistants handle more and more clinical and administrative routines within the medical office their pay increases accordingly. Then, as you gain further insight and experience you will soon find yourself advancing to new and more exciting levels and with careful planning and realistic goals your future medical assistant job will be satisfying and secure.

Tip: Find out about possible educational and professional certification requirements in your state, and research employer's expectations and typical pay in your area before you dive right in. You can explore local trends right from your daily newspaper classified ads and by talking to medical assistants in the doctor's offices that you visit. You can also visit some of the local vocational training schools and ask whether they will allow you to sit in one of their classes, or two, to see what it is all about and do your research concerning the medical assistant's future job outlook and statistics online.