Medical Assistant Site

YES! You, Too, Can Be A Medical Assistant!

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Reaching your career goal is easier than you might think. Find out how and WHERE you can earn your Medical Assistant Diploma through a career training program that works.

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Are You Cut Out To Be A Medical Assistant Or Should You Go For Something Else?

The first step when deciding on a fitting career is to assess what you do well. It's also important to explore various training and career opportunities in your particular area first.

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Is the Medical Assistant Career Still Hot?

You bet! The U.S. Census Bureau emphasizes that the current market trends along with cost control in the health care industry are making medical assisting and related occupations some of the hottest careers in today's job market. It is hard to imagine that the medical assistant career could ever go away. There is an assistant for every specialty in the medical field, and there even are assistants for assistants. Doctors realize how valuable the medical assistant is for their business and the community, and will therefore always readily hire them to fill various positions in their medical practice.

How Many Are Currently Working In A Health Career?

Over 2 million people are employed as allied health professionals in the United States. With vocational training so readily available, salaries climbing (yes, they are!), and working conditions improving the demand for medical assistants is on the rise. It is a good time to enter into this exciting career in all disciplines (clinical and administrative areas).

What Are the Reasons For this High Demand For Medical Assistants?

Medical care, therapeutic, and pharmaceutical services play an important role in our nation's economy and welfare. Driven by the ever increasing need for health care services opportunities in health care related disciplines abound wherever there are people. There is plenty of room for men and women in health and medical service related careers from major cities to rural areas, as long as they have at least a high school diploma and the drive to achieve their dreams -- and medical office managers and recruiters are ready to hire them. Employment is not limited by location, gender, race, religion, or even disability. Recruiters and employers everywhere are in constant need for more, and better qualified staff to serve patients and clients; this includes medical assistants, whose job it is to make sure that health care providers can fully focus their time on their work directly with patients.

Statistics

Medical assisting is an interesting and rewarding occupation. About 6 out of 10 worked in offices of physicians; about 14 percent worked in public and private hospitals, including inpatient and outpatient facilities; and 11 percent worked in offices of other health practitioners, such as chiropractors, optometrists, and podiatrists. The rest worked mostly in outpatient care centers, public and private educational services, other ambulatory health care services, State and local government agencies, employment services, medical and diagnostic laboratories, and nursing care facilities. Medical assisting is projected to be one of the fastest growing occupations over the 2004-14 period.

Career Advancement Options

Those who have worked in the profession for a few years often wonder if they should go on and become a nurse. Others continue in the medical assisting field for many, many years. Not because of the pay (there still is a big gap between the medical assistant's wages and that of a nurse), but because of the strong relationships they forge with the doctors and other health care staff and also with their patients, which almost always is a long term relationship.

In a hospital it is more likely that doctors, nurses and patients come and go within a very short time! And although all health care occupations are very rewarding, nurses might not get to know their patients as well as medical assistants do, and might not be as closely involved in their health maintenance and recovery path over the long run. Learn more about other career options medical assistants often crosstrain into.