Medical Assistant Training Programs

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics employment opportunities for medical assistants remain excellent!

Future medical assistant can quickly earn a medical assistant diploma from readily available medical assisting training programs at a community college, private for-profit vocational training institution, or completely web based online. A typical accelerated medical assistant training program takes about 9-11 months from start to finish.Those who enroll are usually young people embarking on their very first career path, middle-aged adults seeking post-secondary education as a means of career change, or much needed vocational rehab, or senior citizens wishing to get back into the workforce to supplement their income.

Earning a Medical Assistant Diploma

Medical assistants can be formally trained or be trained directly on the job, however, most doctors don't have the time to train staff and prefer to hire a medical assistant with formal training so that he, or she can be immediately put to work and handle typical daily medical office routines. So, the best option is to seek formal medical assistant training from a vocational training program.

1. What are your short and long term professional goals?
2. What are the latest trends on the local job market?
3. Possible educational or certification requirements?
4. Employer expectations and how much do they pay?

When contacting a vocational training school, ask whether their program is completely campus based, or a combination of classroom instruction and online, or entirely web based. Find out how long the program will take from start to finish and what kind of documentation you will receive upon graduation.

If it is an online course, ask whether your certificate or diploma you earned will state “online program” on it; you may, or may not want that. Ask how long the program has been in existence and how many people have graduated successfully. The bottom line is for you to know your long and short term goals and pick your school according to your future aspirations.

December 2011 vote results:

Embarking on Your Medical Assistant Training

The most promising medical assistant training institutions and their programs are those which are approved by the U.S. Department of Education and accredited by the Commission of Accreditation on Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) and/or ABHES. Make sure the school of your choice teaches both, the administrative and clinical curriculum, otherwise our employability and competitive edge as a well rounded medical assist is instantly diminished. Doctors want medical assistants that can be rotated from the front to the back office, should the need arise, and many now expect to see medical assistant certifications. Those who plan to sit for the AAMA or AMT medical assistant certification exam need to have general, administrative and clinical areas of knowledge to pass.

Some state's Board of Medical Examiners/State Medical Boards may require special training and limited licenses for medical assistants whose job involves certain highly technical skills, e.g. phlebotomy, ECG/EKG, IV lines, ultrasound, x-rays, or other specific modalities; one of these states is Florida where medical assistants must have a limited x-ray license before they can take any radiological images.

Go for a Medical Assistant Degree or Just the Diploma?

The question, whether a medical assistant degree is better than a medical assistant diploma has been debated for decades and remains a hot topic among prospective medical assistant students. Here are some questions you can ask when deciding on which path to take, or which type of program to aim for:

Do other colleges accept transfer credits from this school?

Which other schools accept transfer credits from here and for exactly which classes?

 Which entity is the school accredited through?

           - Or has the school applied for accreditation and is in the process of obtaining it?

 How long has it been accredited?

 What is the average class size?

         - Is there room for individual attention?

 How much is the tuition including all books, uniforms and equipment?

         - What will my total tuition be when I finish?

 What are the specific terms of the educational loan?

         - What is the interest rate?

 What is the job outlook and the possibility for promotions?

 Are there cross-training and advancement opportunities?

 Will the school help me find an internship/externship site?

 Will the school help me find my first job (job placement assistance)?

        - How much can I expect to get paid during the first years?

If you intend to use your medical assistant career training as a springboard to later pursue a career in nursing, health information management (HIM), medical office management, and hospital administration, or enter into one of the many medical and laboratory technologist occupations, we strongly recommend that you enroll in a two year program at a local college, or online program from a college leading to an associate in applied science degree (AS or AAS). In many cases, some of the college credits earned can be transferred toward another higher level degree, e.g. a Bachelors degree later on.