If you’re thinking about starting your healthcare career, becoming a medical assistant is a great way to start. There is projected to be a high demand for medical assistants for the coming decade (2023 to 2033), and you may be wondering what education you need to become a medical assistant. Do you need a degree? Or is a certification enough to work as a medical assistant?
The good news is that it’s easier than you might think to become a medical assistant. You still have to put in the work, finish a training program, and pass a certifying exam, but a new medical career is within your reach!
Let’s examine the facts so you can decide for yourself whether a career as a medical assistant is right for you.
What Is a Medical Assistant?
Medical assistants are healthcare workers that assist physicians in medical offices, hospitals, outpatient clinics, and other healthcare facilities. They perform a range of administrative and clinical tasks.
A medical assistant must work under the supervision of a licensed physician or nurse practitioner. Medical assistants are not licensed to practice medicine, but they are still a very important part of medical offices and healthcare teams.
Duties and Responsibilities of Medical Assistants
Medical assistants perform both administrative and clinical tasks.
Here are some of the administrative duties a medical assistant may perform:
- Welcoming patients and answering the phone
- Setting patient appointments
- Managing patients’ medical records
- Handling insurance information and paperwork
- Patient correspondence
- Moving patient information from paper records to electronic health records (EHR)
- Ensuring the medical office runs smoothly
These are some of the clinical duties a medical assistant may be responsible for:
- Prepare patients for medical examinations
- Update medical histories, collecting medical information
- Measuring vital signs, like blood pressure
- Drawing blood for samples
- Removing sutures and changing dressings
- Performing basic laboratory exams
- Helping physicians with medical examinations
- Administering injections or giving medications under physician’s instructions as regulated by state law
- Relaying information from doctor to patient as regulated
What Are Medical Assistant Degrees?
Degree programs for medical assistant training are usually offered by junior colleges and take up to two years to complete. These are associate degree programs that both prepare students for a certification exam and provide educational credits that allow a student to earn an associate’s degree.
Certificate programs are generally many months to one year in length and prepare students for a state certification exam and provide additional vocational training for medical assisting.
Do You Need a Degree to Be a Medical Assistant?
In all fifty states, you do not need a degree to work as a medical assistant. Only four states require medical assistants to be certified: Connecticut, Idaho, Washington, and New Jersey. Aside from these states, there are no formal education requirements except for a high school diploma.
While it is conceivably possible to get a medical assisting job with on-the-job training, it is not common. The reason being employers that carry malpractice insurance tend to look for medical assistants that are certified because their insurance stipulates the workers in their medical office must be certified.
An associate or bachelor's degree is not required to work as a medical assistant, but it’s a good idea to get certified through a state Board approved training program.
Certificate vs Degree: What are the Differences?
What’s the difference between a degree and certification program for medical assisting?
Certificate programs are typically one year or less, degree programs are about two years for an associate’s degree. On average, a degree program will typically cost more than a certification program.
Certification and degree programs can both be offered by accredited educational institutions.
Salary and Job Outlook
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of May 2023, medical assistants were earning a median average salary of $42,000 per year and a median wage of $20.19 per hour nationwide.[1] The BLS reports that as of May 2023, medical assistants in California earned a median salary of $50,900 and a median wage of $24.47. There is also a projected job growth of 15% from 2023 to 2033 for medical assistants, adding 118,000 jobs over that decade, according to BLS data.
In 36 Weeks, You Can Become a Certified Medical Assistant
If you’re ready to start your healthcare career, Campus Sacramento, formerly MTI College, has a Medical Assisting training program that will help you become certified medical assistant in about 36 weeks. We also have a Medical Assisting with Phlebotomy program to help students get their CPT I certification along with medical assistant certification. For more information on start dates, financial assistance, curriculum, and more, contact our Admissions team or call 888-675-2460.
[1] Note: The data provided above are from a source unaffiliated with Campus, formerly known as MTI College, are for informational purposes only and represent the employment field as a whole. They are not solely specific to Campus graduates and, by providing the above information, Campus makes no representation, direct or implied, or opinion regarding employability.