Medical Assistant Courses
The exact type of courses offered through medical assistant schools varies based on whether you plan to acquire a certification or degree, as well as the school and the type of medical assistant you want to be. Although courses are similar, it would be worth your time and effort to research the exact courses based on your ultimate goal. We wanted to offer some information about the elements of some of the courses commonly associated with someone interested in pursuing medical assistant employment.
Of course, when it comes to the more interesting and better paying medical assistant jobs, an Associate’s degree in Applied Science would take you further than medical certification. That is not to say that medical assistant employment in the administrative field with an earned certificate would be boring or that the pay is bad simply that a two-year degree opens more doors of opportunity for immediate employment, as well as long-term opportunities for growth.
Keep in mind that to earn an Associate’s degree for medical assistant employment you would first need to complete the technical program successfully. This certificate covers coursework associated with administrative and clinical aspects of the job whereas a two-year degree focuses more on medical aspects such as laboratory testing, drawing blood, patients’ vital signs, and so on. To move on to the college degree, you would need to have the certification completed with a minimum of a 2.0 GPA and 18 completed semester hours. On the other hand, the Associate’s degree would be a minimum 2.0 GPA but for 64 semester hours.
If you were to take the medical assistant certification program to include Phlebotomy (drawing blood), you would gain the necessary skills to collect blood using several proper techniques. This course would also train you about potential dangers of handling blood and proven methods of protection. Other aspects of the certificate program would include using butterfly needles, capillary skin puncture, blood cultures, collecting blood on adults, older children, and babies, and more.
Another course associated with medical assistant certification is “professional issues”, which is typically three credit hours. As an assistant, you would need to learn appropriate ways of discussing sensitive information with clients while staying within both legal and ethical standards for the position. With this course, you would gain that expertise, along with strategies for goal setting and even time management.
Basic medical coding is also a required course for medical assistant employment. With this, you would learn rules for coding different systems such as the CPT, HCPCS, and ICD-9-CM. Then, administrative courses would be required based on the level of medical assistant jobs most interested in securing. For this, topics include office management, communication, medical records, chart documentation, supply inventory, facilities management, policies, and procedures, bookkeeping, medical insurance, claims, coding, etc.
Medical terminology is extremely important if you want to get involved with assisting in a medical environment. Although you would learn everything needed to do the job, medical terminology would be something you could start learning before even looking at options for different medical assistant schools. In other words, before starting the search for the right school, you could easily find medical terminology used in medical assistant jobs and start studying, which would provide you with a nice advantage.
Another course of study that will help you make the highest medical assistant pay is actual medical assisting. As a part of the job function for medical assistant jobs of all levels, you would need to understand the role and functions of the job. While some of this would be taught on the job in most cases, this type of coursework is mandatory and extremely beneficial. Just a few examples of what the course would cover includes taking vital signs, preparing patients for surgery, diagnostic testing, general pharmacology, lab testing, infection control, instrumentation, and more.
Many people still think of medical assistant jobs as being low level positions without much challenge but as you can see from the few examples of coursework provided, there is a tremendous amount to learn. Even if you were only interested in working as an Administrative Medical Assistant, you would still be required to gain insight into things you never imagined. However, in return for attending school, you would have more choices for medical assistant employment and ultimately, your medical assistant salary would be competitive.
