Medical Assistant Jobs
Medical assistant jobs involve helping physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals with both the medical and the administrative aspects of running a health care facility. The duties of medical assistant jobs may include issuing billing statements and recording payments, retrieving patient records and updating them with appropriate codes to enable effective long-term treatment, or greeting patients and answering phones.
These roles may also involve simple medical procedures such as taking down basic identity and medical history information from new patients, taking the temperatures and other standard health metrics of patients prior to procedures or checkups, or even preparing and administering medicines or vaccines. While medical assistants do not usually take part in diagnosis of patient ailments or the performance of advanced medical procedures, they assist in nearly every other aspect of the operation of medical practices and facilities.
Some entry-level medical assistant jobs may require only a high-school or equivalent diploma, but formal training from a two or four-year vocational program may be needed for positions with more advanced duties. Many certification programs are also available for people looking for medical assistant jobs, such as the Certified Medical Assistant certification offered by the American Association of Medical Assistants.