The most stressful aspect of becoming a certified medical assistant is, without a doubt, taking your final exams. This is true of pretty much any course you take or school you attend, so at least you’re not alone. As with any exam there are things you can do to prepare and calm yourself down so that you can spend your time studying and focusing, NOT stressing out.

Make Sure You Know Which Material to Study

Graduating your program is one thing, but in order to become certified as a medical assistant you need to pass an exam accredited by either the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) or by the Association of Medical Technologists (AMT). Most of what was covered in your course will be on the test. This includes most medical terminology (you have to know what your co-workers are talking about after all) as well as anatomy and physiology. Don’t forget your clerical skills; some students get so caught up in the clinical side of things that they forget to brush up on typing and transcription skills as well as accounting and insurance processes. Study everything and you will be prepared.

Don’t Burn Yourself out by Studying too Much

I remember when I would take exams in undergrad; I would wait until the last minute and then stay up all night cramming for the test. It never worked. It’s fine to take time off after graduating if you don’t want to write your medical assistant test right away, but make sure you keep reading your study materials on a regular basis. You will be better off studying a little bit every day than waiting until the last minute and trying to cram all that knowledge in your brain. Tests have shown that small studying sessions with regular breaks is the most effective way to retain information.

Test Your Knowledge with an Online Practice Test

Most medical assistant tests have 200 multiple choice questions that cover everything in the syllabus, that’s a lot of material to study for. How can you tell how far along you’ve come with your studying? Well first you can check online and use one of the many FREE medical assistant practice tests available to you. This is a great way to get comfortable with a digital test interface (which the medical assistant exam is) and see which areas you need to study more of. If you ace all the questions about proper patient handling and care but find yourself with a poor score on medical terminology then you know which area you should be focusing on.

Remember not to wait too long before applying to take your medical assistant test, if you wait over a year from graduating your application can be denied. So if you want to take a nice trip or go on vacation after finishing your course that’s fine, but don’t put the exam out of your mind or you could be out of luck. Studying is stressful, always has been and always will be, but with the proper preparation you can make sure you give yourself the best chance possible of passing your medical assistant exam.

One of the most common questions I get from visitors to the site is what I do everyday as a certified medical assistant. To become a certified medical assistant you need to take 1-2 years of school, or if you already have a lot of experience, then you can use your background to just learn what to do on the job. I could have used my experience as a business administrator for my parent’s barber shop, but I chose to go back to school and do the courses in anatomy, medicine, first aid, pharmacology, lab techniques and ethics because I wanted to refresh my knowledge about these topics. I was 28 when I finally went back to school and I got my medical assistant certification when I was just about to turn 30. I’ve been a certified medical assistant for five years now and I’ve never been happier!

If you want to read more about medical assistant requirements, check out this blog post!

Certified Medical Assistant Administration and Office Duties

I work in the reception of a busy private neuro-surgical clinic. I make sure that the clinic is running smoothly and because our business is so small, I do some clinical tasks as well and I report directly to our two surgeons and a business manager. Part of my medical administrative assistant tasks are to update and file patient medical records, fill out insurance forms and arrange for transfer from hospitals and laboratory services, such as blood tests.

Apart from the above, my standard duties are to answer telephones, greet patients, handle the day-to-day postal and e-mail correspondence, deal with the accounts and bookkeeping and schedule appointments with patients and the surgeons.

Medical Assistant Clinical Duties

Because we are such a small clinic, sometimes I also help out with some of the clinical duties. The most I’ve ever done is to record vital signs, but I was told at the job interview that I may have to assist as well sometimes by preparing laboratory specimens and performing basic tests! It’s very exciting. Sometimes I have to sterilize medical instruments and safely dispose of contaminated supplies.

I love working with patients in particular, and sometimes the surgeons ask me to explain medical procedures to them while they are working with another patient. I know a lot about diets, nutrition and fitness and I take part in a lot of marathons as a hobby, so I love telling patients about healthy lifestyles and how they can improve their overall level of health and fitness.

On rare occasions when the nurse is unavailable, I sometimes have to prepare patients for x-rays, use the EKG machine and even remove sutures and change dressings! I’m no longer afraid of blood since my accident with Gary and I absolutely love it when I get to assist with surgery somehow.

I’m an absolute freak when it comes to cleanliness and this is one of the reasons why my bosses love me. We do have a janitor who comes in twice a day, but during the day I usually keep everything neat and tidy and on occasion I may even wash up the hallway and sterilize the reception desk.

Oh, I get to wear a lab coat as well most of the day!

Check this article out if you want to learn more about medical assistant duties! Or this article for how to become a medical assistant!

Medical Assistant Salary

This is a common question, but I think I am paid very well. I started my salary at $29k 5 years ago, because of my previous 10 years’ experience in business administration, but now it has increased to $35k. While it is a bit smaller than the annual median for the country, I absolutely love my job and I can expect to get at least up to $50-60k if I work for another 10 years in this job.

If you want to learn what you could make as  a certified medical assistant, check out this article about medical assistant salaries!

Without a doubt, getting my medical assistant certification was the best decision of my life and I’m going to stay here till I retire!

Check out some of my other articles, including information about medical assistant certification online, resources to help you on your way to getting your certification, and what medical assistant skills you will need to succeed at your new career!

I’ve been searching the internet for medical assistant certification resources to help you on the path to your future.  From the far reaches of the internet, I bring you the finest resources I could find.

As I’ve explained here on med-assistant-certification.com, when you are in school, you will have many different requirements as far as topics go;

• Biology
• Anatomy
• Physiology
• Chemistry
• Physical Science

The best place to brush up on all these subjects is actually, YouTube.  Educator.com’s channel: EducatorVids has tons of science related videos that are short, concise, and easy to digest.

For other Biology related information, biologynews.net is also a good read.

When working on your medical assistant certification, it’s VERY important that you stand out from the rest of your class.  Certified medical assistant is a designation that is not easily achieved, however, it is a growing field in the medical industry.  It is inevitable that with the growing field, more competition for the top spots will occur.  Being well-read on topics other than generic school studies is incredibly important.

Another way to set yourself up to grab the best paying and most rewarding positions is to have a network.  The following are my top five blogs in the nursing arena!  They will also give you a much better view of what a medical assistant is and the everyday duties of medical assistants in the health care industry.

1.  Nurse Ratched’s Place: These are great stories by a professional with a clear, and easy to read writing style, entertaining and poignant.

2. Nurse POV Blogs – A collection of different blogs for a community of nurses.

3. Impacted Nurse – Here is the nitty gritty of everyday life as a certified medical assistant or nurse.  This is where you will find real life cases of medicine in practice.

4. The Nursing Site Blog – Info on education in the medical industry!

5. Blood, Guts, and Coffee – I love a macabre sense of humor, and this blog definitely has it. Quips and quirks abound, the only downside, lack of updates for the nursing blog.

Once you get out of school, you’ll need information on how to find a good paying job, there are two different paths you can take, small clinic, or large hospital, for the larger companies:

CareerBuilder – These guys have been around a long time and will continue to be around.
Monster – Same as with CareerBuilder, both are well reputed and will attract the larger companies, which have more nursing and medical assistant jobs available.

The reason you want to go with these well known sites is because the employers will likely go to the most notable sites with their bulk jobs.  Work smarter, not harder!

If you are trying to get a job with a medical clinic or with a specific doctor, you will need to read this article!

Also, be sure to check out the American Association of Medical Assistants website at http://www.aama-ntl.org/!

You didn’t think they would just give you your medical assistant certification, did you? There are a number of exams and medical assistant tests you’ll have to face in order to achieve your goal of becoming a certified medical assistant, luckily for you, I’m here to show you around.  Tests are accredited by either the American Association of Medical Assistant (AAMA) or by Association of Medical Technologists (AMT).

First, you should know that there are two options, the one-year diploma/certificate course and the two-year certificate or degree program from an accredited school.  You can choose to go to the live classes or there are a lot of online training classes for medical assistants out there as well.

Medical Certification Test Eligibility:

1. Per the AAMA, medical assistant students that are completing their final year of their CAAHEP or ABHES accredited medical assistant programs, have to enroll at least 30 days prior to finishing their last course, including any externship. Recent graduates should apply with a year of graduating.
2. If you have applied more than twelve months after you graduated, your application can be denied.
3. You can become re-certified if you’ve already finished the certified medical assistant program if you want to keep your license current.
4. If you have any felonies on your record, you will not be eligible for the CMA (certified medical assistant), the certifying board has made exceptions before though.

Applying procedure:

You have an option to apply at anytime during the year, the medical assistant test, but you need to be sure to be finished with your medical assistant program first. AAMA, CAAHEP, or ABHES members that have graduated need to pay $125 and others have to pay $250 in non-refundable test fees. Once your form is accepted, you will be notified within the month on when you can take your test.  You typically get some form of test ID that you will take to the testing center, Prometric proctors a lot of these tests in our area.

Syllabus:

You will need to be familiar with Anatomy, Physiology, Medical Terminology, as well as clerical skills such as typing, transcription reading, record keeping, accounting and insurance processes. General office questions and situations how to handle patients are also on the medical assistant test sometimes.  These are just a few of the medical assistant skills you will need.

Exam Procedure:

The medical assistant test consists of four 40 minute segments with 200 multiple-choice questions that cover the criteria mentioned in the syllabus.You are allowed to take up to a 20 minute break within the four part test.

Certification Procedure:

The beauty of electronic testing is that you will usually know within minutes if you passed the exam, but you won’t get the full report for about ten weeks after the test is taken.  If you passed then your journey to becoming a certified medical assistant is over, but the adventure of WORKING as a medical assistant is only just beginning!  Don’t let the medical assistant test bother you, I’ve known plenty of people who swore they were terrible test takers, and they could still pass it.  DO your research on the training program you decide to take, and make sure they cover all the parts of the syllabus thoroughly so that you won’t have any surprises come test time. If you’ve already passed the medical assistant test, congratulations on your medical assistant certification!

Medical Assistant Duties

With the explosion in the demand of medical assistants, many physicians are looking for employees with their medical assistant certification to do the higher pay grade tasks. Typically, certified doctor’s assistants carry out basic tasks, such as first contact with patients, recording patient history, taking blood tests, performing ultrasounds, MRI’s, and even blood tests.  That’s a LOT of jobs you could be performing after getting your certification. The purpose of this article is to explain some of the medical assistant duties that you will be responsible for after starting work.

What does a medical assistant do?

As I said in the first paragraph, this is a difficult question to answer, but I’ll do my best!  When you start, you will likely be doing what we call “Front Office Duties”, especially if you took the six month or year long diploma route.  You will then slowly be trained for “Back Office Duties”, these are the fun jobs, such as helping doctor’s with their MRI’s, ultrasounds, and blood tests. Here are other typical medical assistant duties you may have, as well as some medical assistant duties that are possibly not so typical.

• Front Office Medical Assistant Duties

Clerical Medical Assistant: Basic secretarial work, answer phone calls, keep the doctors from having to take phone calls from patients that don’t really need to speak to them, greeting clients as they come in, answering the mail, billing, setting up schedules, and some will handle bookkeeping and accounting functions for the office as well.  Even though you won’t be paid as much as other medical assistants if this is all you do, you are the rock star of the office, without you, patients don’t see the doctor, the office doesn’t make any money, and no one gets paid! You will learn a lot of these medical assistant skills in each avenue you could take to becoming a medical assistant with certification.

Administrative Medical Assistant:

Don’t be confused with the similarities in the clerical medical assistant, the administrative assistant typically is more involved with the medical side of the office.  Your medical assistant duties will include filling insurance papers, sending patients to referrals for specialists and scheduling their appointments, scheduling clients for specific tests, ordering lab and test equipment, and updating patient’s charts.  Higher tier duties include keeping inventory of the test equipment and medical supplies. This is also a very important position as NO doctor likes it when the MRI machine is double-booked.  Keeping the doctors and patients happy keeps that high pay coming in!  These duties are typically covered in all the three paths to becoming a medical assistant, but you’ll get a  bit more in the Associate’s Degree and Online Degree for Medical Assistants.

• Back Office Duties of a Medical Assistant

Clinical Medical Assistants: This position actually has direct contact with patients and work directly with the doctors.  You are an important piece of the office’s medical processes.  Now, there are laws and regulations that limit what exactly you can do, but believe me, without us following proper procedures the whole supply chain of helping the patients can be altered.  You collect blood samples, help the doctors with their notes, help prep the patients for their tests, collecting accurate medical history, getting saliva and “other” swabbed samples, handling lab samples, and the list goes on and on.  You will learn more of these procedures in the two year degree, but it will be covered in the year long course as well as the online training, just slightly less in depth.

Specialists Medical Assistants:

These positions are the highest paying of the bunch.  You will have been specifically trained in different areas of medicine and will be the doctor’s right hand assistant.  You will perform actually medical procedures on patients and help them overcome whatever it is they are in the office for. Examples would include being an optometrist’s assistant or pediatric assistant.  You will likely be involved in surgeries as well!  You will have to receive your medical assistant certification from a two year program and likely have an externship as well to receive the appropriate medical assistant training to become a specialist.  With the high pay comes the most medical assistant duties.  Some offices have in-house training that you can become a specialist through.

So, what does a medical assistant do?  Everything that makes a doctor’s office actually run! Without you, patients don’t get to see the doctor on time, their test results don’t get put in the right places, their histories aren’t filled out correctly in order to have appropriate diagnosis and prescriptions, etc.  These are just some of the medical assistant duties you will be responsible for.  If you are ready for a rewarding, high paying job go and start the process of getting your medical assistant certification today!