How to Become a Medical Assistant

Learn How to Become a Medical Assistant and the clever approaches to be taken in the pursuit of this awesome career

Do you have the innate characteristics of assisting people in distress and you are curious about how to become a medical assistant?

Introduction to How to Become a Medical Assistant

A medical assistant is such a very important stakeholder in the healthcare field as he/she plays a huge role in providing quality healthcare to patients.

As a medical assistant, you will be working at a hospital, nursing centers, and various other healthcare facilities. You can also specialize in optometrists, ophthalmologists, and podiatrists as a medical assistant.

In this piece, we’ve compiled important steps you’ve got to take to become a medical assistant. Sounds interesting? Read on to find out more!

Pursue and Complete a Medical Assisting Diploma

Though it’s true many people tend to find an assistant medical role with a high school certificate, however, the current reality is that many employers prefer candidates with post-high school training.

This is also in accordance with the recent statistics of the Bureau of Labour that say many employers of labor prefer people that have earned a university certificate or its equivalent as medical assistants.

You will be at a higher chance of being selected if you are a certified medical assistant (CMA) or a registered medical assistant (RMA).

These two certifications require that you’ve completed a diploma or certificate program before you are even eligible to sit for the examination at all.

It’s also important that you consider many factors such as the program accreditation, alumni outcomes, and the medium of program delivery before deciding to follow it or not.

This is important as some medical assistant courses don’t have the hands-on practice that will make the total comprehension of the course possible.

While online courses are great as they give you a ton of benefits such as convenience, the in-person program will furnish you with practical experience of all the concepts discussed in the four walls of the classes.

Also, the medical field is a very interesting career choice that requires hands-on practice.

Gather Medical Assisting Experience

Having both the theoretical and practical experiences while in your medical assisting program doesn’t cut as there’s also a need for you to gather valuable experience in the same industry you will be doing too soon.

You’ve to intern at a reputable clinic or specialty practice where you will be able to practice the skills you’ve learned over time.

During the internship, you will take up tasks such as drawing blood from the patients while supervised. This goes a long way in building your capacity as a budding medical assistant and highlights of which you can include in your CV.

Similarly, the internship experience raises your level of professionalism as a prospective medical assistant as you learn how and how not to do certain things in the field.

The ethical concerns and how best a medical assistant should conduct herself in and out of the hospital.

Go for Certification Examinations

As stated earlier, there are instances where you can get a medical assistant’s role without obtaining any certifications.

But this isn’t the best deal if you want to do well in the long run. It makes you really competitive and more resourceful if you acquire the necessary certifications before seeking an assistant medical role.

You can sit for the certified medical assistant (CMA) examination and registered medical assistant (RMA) examination.

These examinations cover a range of topics such as medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, safety, and legal compliance, which means you must prepare ahead and pass the examination before you are inducted as a certified member.

The certifications will also be a great addition to your resume. If you have, it shows the potential employer that you are a professional and doing your very best to improve yourself professionally.

Audit and Workup Your Skills

The Healthcare industry isn’t a joke as it requires every professional to have the needed skills to carry out their tasks quite well.

There’s certainly no room for mediocrity, and as a budding medical assistant, you’ve to audit your present skills and know what to work on going forward.

As a medical assistant, you are supposed to have a great knowledge of medical terminology, patient etiquette, how to perform healthcare administrative tasks, and how to use electronic health records (EHR).

Also, take stock of your soft skills such as empathy, ability to multi-task, and communication.

Search and Apply for a Medical Assistant Position

The next step to becoming a medical assistant is to search for the position and apply. If you’ve got all the training in the world regarding being a medical assistant and you fail to apply, you can’t achieve your dream of being a medical assistant.

Once you’ve got a couple of medical assistant positions at your favorable locations and applied, then it’s time for interview preparation.

You want to make sure you give it your all as this is what you have spent years on achieving. Then go for the interview prepared, confident, and optimistic that you will do well.

Also, there are huge opportunities around, but many students fail to realize this. While still at the school, connect with many like minds and teachers; in the course of keeping in touch, you may realize they know one or two hospitals or clinics that may need your service.

The same goes for internship locations as well, don’t forget to connect with people and also keep in touch with them.

Final thoughts on How to Become a Medical Assistant

These points discussed above are explanations of how to become a medical assistant. The most important thing you should always note and work on is setting yourself above every person who wants the same career path.

Ensure you take all of the training seriously. Do your very best to sit for the certification exams and gather the necessary experience during the internship to have practical experience about what he/she will be facing in the next few months. The goal is to be persistent and always keep at it; the work will come in soonest.