Morgaine asked:
1. I am thinking about getting certified as a Medical Assistant in order to put myself through further schooling. Would this be possible?
2. How much does it cost to take the classes?
3. What kind of opportunities are offered internationally for this job?
4. Are there any options for promotion or salary upgrade as a Medical Assistant?
5. What are the hours like?
6. Anything else I should consider?
Thanks. Please note I am talking about medical assisting, not nurse’s assistants.
1. Being a certified medical assistant you could get education in a 2 years college, or training schools.
colleges like Queens-borough community college. they offered it too, and training school like Bramson Ort college.
Both of these two college offers certified Associated degrees and you need to take national test in order to be a certified medical assistant.
2. Well in both of these 2 colleges they both offered financial aid and pell grants. you could also ask for student loans but all of these is based upon your income tax. so i suggest you sit down with a school adviser before you sign up for the classes.
3. After you are certified as a MA you could continued your education or your career as a Nurse, Physician assistant or anything you want to be in medical field. But internationally, i don’t think you can do much. maybe if you wants to be a Medical doctor whereas you could be a licensed for international doctor. but other than that, i don’t know if you could be a international medical assistant.
4. As far as salary upgrade or promotion as a medical assistant it all depends on your skills and your relationship with the place where you working at. either a hospital or a private office. Some starting pays maybe $18 per hour or higher. it all depends on how good you are as a medical assistant you have to negotiated with your employer. you can do internships first. and starting from there to get your experience first.
5. well as you may already know medical assistant is very demanding in medical field because they act as a manager in a office. MA take cares of almost anything. so definitely their hours is very demanding. If you feels that it’s too much or too little hours you are working right now. I am sure they are more than happy to talk to you about it. because they are all professionals.
6. well as far as other concerns that you are talking about, i would say as a medical assistant you should understands that everyday you are working with patients that are sick, either physically or mentally. so obviously it’s very stressful but also rewarding at the same time. You should be sympathy to them, and expect lots of responsibilities each day. You will be doing clinical work and administrative work. So from doing a simple EKG to filing a claim electronically. Also you will be working directly with the doctor and direct contact with the patients. so things like drawing blood, taking vital signs, EKG, etc. you will be overwhelmed with work. I think you need a good compassionate heart to deal with it and make sure it is something that you are really interested otherwise you won’t make it even for the very first day of work.
GOod luck!
You should consider that you will mainly work in doctors offices. You should also consider that there is no room for advancement in this profession.
Wages are not that great. Look on salary.com and get some more info regarding that, or check the O*Net website. It has detailed info about the profession, your daily job responsibilities, and wages nationally AND state-by-state. I got this from my local unemployment office, its a trusted site that is used by many state agencies.