Medical assistants play a crucial role in clinics, medical offices, and hospitals, providing much needed support to medical staff. If you’ve passed certification and finished your training, or are close to doing so, it’s time to start thinking about getting a job as a medical assistant. We’ve put together some tips and advice for getting a job as a medical assistant.
What Is a Medical Assistant?
A medical assistant (MA) is a healthcare professional who supports the work of physicians and other medical workers in a medical facility. Medical assistants can do a variety of administrative and clinical tasks that help the medical office run smoothly and allow the doctors to provide the highest quality of medical care to patients. Typically, a medical assistant will work in a physician’s office, hospital, clinic, long term care facility, or any other healthcare workplace where a licensed physician is present.
What Does a Medical Assistant Do?
Here is a partial list of clinical and administrative tasks a medical assistant can do, including:
- Greeting patients and answering phone
- Setting appointments for patients and checking them in
- Updating and managing medical appointments
- Inputting and updating patient’s insurance information
- Taking vital signs, like blood pressure, weight, pulse
- Collecting samples from patients for diagnostic testing
- Preparing patients for physician examinations
- Sterilizing equipment and preparing exam rooms
- Writing down medical histories
- Measuring vital signs, like blood pressure
- Drawing blood for testing (under physician supervision or with CPT I certification)
- Removing sutures and staples, and changing dressings
- Performing basic laboratory exams
- Helping physicians with medical examinations
- Administering injections or giving medications per physician’s instructions and as regulated by state law
- Instructing patients about medications and special diets they may need
Medical assistants are not allowed to practice medicine or do invasive procedures but can do most other clinical tasks under physician supervision that are not regulated by their respective states.
How to Find a Job as a Medical Assistant
Here are some tangible steps for getting hired as a medical assistant.
1. Get Trained and Certified
Find a good training program and enroll, complete the program, and take the certification exam. Most states require students to have hands-on work experience to sit for the certification exam. Because of this, many training programs include an unpaid externship. Once you complete training, you can take the certification exam. To enroll, you only need to have a high school diploma, or equivalent like a GED.
Note: California does not require certification to work as a medical assistant, but it is highly recommended. Most employers have insurance requirements for medical assistants to be certified for malpractice insurance policies to be valid.
2. Research Employers in Your Area
You’ll probably want to find out which employers have a culture, payscale, and schedule that fits your goals. You can look at job boards to find what medical facilities are hiring near you and look at online reviews and the websites of the healthcare facilities to find more information about what it is like to work there.
3. Prepare Resume and Apply to Jobs
Now that you’ve found jobs on job boards, you should prepare a resume with your relevant education, skills, and work experience. You’ll need to submit this to employers as a job candidate.
4. Get Ready for Interviews
Once you get job interviews lined up, prepare to do an interview, and think about what questions a hiring manager might ask you in an interview. You can even practice doing an interview with friends to be confident in your answers.
5. Consider Job Offers
If you get a call back from a round of interviews and a job offer, anticipate ahead of time what terms you are willing to accept. If it’s your first medical assisting job, you may not have as much negotiating power. With more experience, you may have more leverage.
Advice for Getting Hired as a Medical Assistant
These are additional tips for getting hired as a medical assistant.
Earn Your Certificate
You don’t need to be certified to work as a medical assistant in most states – only Washington requires medical assistants to be certified to work with patients. However, it’s a great idea to get certified for various reasons. But ultimately, an employer is going to choose the most qualified candidates, and this is a way to show you have the necessary training to work in a medical office.
Research The Job Market in Your City
It’s good to know what hospitals and clinics are hiring in your region, and what the going rate for pay is like in your city.
Use Job Boards
It’s easier to find medical centers that are hiring when you use job boards. Smaller clinics might also be hiring. Look for medical assistant jobs at physician offices, outpatient clinics, occupational medicine offices, urgent care facilities, and any other medical facilities in your city.
Ask Industry Friends Which Places are Always Hiring
If you have friends or colleagues already actively working in the medical field, they can tell you if there are certain employers that are hiring. Urgent care and occupational health facilities are two types of medical offices you should look into. If you’re a male medical assistant, psychiatric hospitals may be a place you can get hired more easily.
Look at Private Practices
Some specialty physicians may be hiring and these may not be listed on the usual job boards. These can be great places to learn more about helping patients in a medical office, so it’s worth investigating.
Skills Needed as a Medical Assistant
To succeed as a medical assistant, you need soft skills that help you navigate the challenges of working with patients and other medical professionals, including:
- Good communication. Medical assistants are often the first people patients talk to in a medical office, when they answer the phone. The MA must be able to listen to their problems, take notes, and help them make an appointment. Medical assistants are also the connective liaison between doctors and patients, communicating concerns of the patient and relaying instructions from the physician to the patient. Your written communication as a medical assistant must also be concise, effective, and detailed.
- Attention to detail. Medical assistants are often responsible for updating patient medical records and insurance information. These must be accurate or may cause issues in the revenue cycle. They also give information to patients on behalf of physicians, meaning attention to detail is a primary concern.
- Team dynamics and professionalism. Working with a medical team isn’t always stress-free. Some days can be busy, schedules can get behind, but the best medical assistants can work through these situations with a clear head and stoic professionalism.
- Empathy. Working with patients who have medical issues can be emotionally charged. Medical professionals should have a high degree of empathy to help alleviate their fears and set their mind at ease.
- Multi-tasking. Medical assistants often juggle different administrative and clinical tasks. Being able to take on different tasks and be highly adaptive is the key to success.
- Learning new skills. There is always room to learn and analyze how the medical office works. Great medical assistants understand these patterns, anticipate problems, and circumvent issues. They often take the initiative to learn the different processes that help the office run smoothly.
- Fundamental medical knowledge. An MA who has a good understanding of anatomy, medical terminology, and medical conditions is a valuable asset to any medical team.
Earn Your Medical Assistant Certificate in as Little as 26 Weeks
If you’ve contemplated starting a career in healthcare, there’s never been a better time to get certified as a medical assistant. Demand for medical assistants is higher than ever, and Campus Sacramento has a Medical Assisting program that will help you get certified in about 36 weeks, and as little as 26 weeks. For more information on start dates, class schedule, and financial aid, contact our friendly Admissions team to get all the details!