Define Medical Assistance

Medical assistance is a fast-growing career field that involves working in doctor's offices, hospitals and other health care environments. People who choose this career are called medical assistants.

Duties

Medical assistance may include administrative tasks such as updating and filing medical records, preparing insurance documents, scheduling lab work and patient appointments, answering and making phone calls and possibly even some billing and bookkeeping work.

Clinical Tasks

Clinical work is also part of a medical assistant's job, but specifics vary according to each state's laws. Clinical duties may include assisting physicians with examinations and treatments, collecting lab specimens, taking medical histories, recording vital signs and preparing patients for X-rays or other procedures.

Specializations

A medical assistant's duties may also be highly specialized. The people who perform medical assistance work in specialty health care environments such as ophthalmology offices must do tasks unique to that specialty, such as removing and caring for contact lenses.

Training

There are 1- and 2-year training programs in vocational schools and community colleges that lead to certificates, diplomas or associate degrees in medical assistance. Most employers require completion of one of these programs, although a few will still train on the job.

Job Outlook

The Occupational Outlook Handbook predicts that medical assistance will be one of the fastest growing occupations in the decade spanning 2006 to 2016, with 35 percent growth expected.

References

• Occupational Outlook Handbook