Medical Assistants: How Much Do They Earn? What Education Is Required?

With the increase in demand for better and effective medical services, many medical jobs have come into existence in the recent years. Some of these are directly associated with serving patients and carrying out surgical operations, whilst some of them are assisting jobs, in which the person is supposed to be assisting the doctor or the surgeon for various administrative and medical concerned operational procedures.

One of these assisting jobs, is being a medical assistant. Medical assistants can be figured out as vital employees of any medical organization, as they perform a wide range of duties and also work beyond their work hours. Along with the pay scale for medical assistant, some other aspects such as the job description and educational requirements will also be discussed in the following segments.

Job Description of Medical Assistant

Medical assistants are not only responsible for performing clinical assistance activities, but their job entails many more tasks. Some of them are explained below.

• The most important work of the medical assistant is to perform clinical activities. These include, noting daily observations of the patient's health and reporting the same to the doctor, applying and changing dressings, assisting blood donors in blood donation activity, preserving medical records, patient history and producing them whenever required by the doctor and carrying out diagnostic procedures and regular heath check-ups.
• Apart from clinical duties, job as medical assistant also involves, management of the front desk of the clinic. At the front office the medical assistant is responsible for replying to telephonic queries, arranging appointments, managing the day to day schedule of the surgeon, performing data entry operations, getting the registration forms filled from the patients and receiving bills.
• Some administrative tasks included in the job profile of the medical assistant are, maintaining various financial records and patient accounts, working on medical assistant job description.

Becoming a medical assistant is not a difficult task. The first step involved in it is to obtain a higher secondary or a certificate of another equivalent technical course relevant to medical services. Further, to enter the market as a medical assistant, it is necessary to obtain the Associate of Applied Science degree from a Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) accredited college. To become a certified medical assistant (CMA), you need to successfully complete the examination conducted for national certification. Read more on certified medical assistant exam.

Medical Assistant Pay Scale

With regards to the average salary of a medical assistant, experience plays the most important role. The more experienced you are, the more is your salary range. Therefore, it is quite possible, that you would not get paid much in the initial days of your career. Freshers with an experience of 1 year or less than that earn about $22000 - $25000 per year. Well established medical assistants holding an experience of 1-3 years, earn anywhere around $25000-$27000. People working as medical assistants for about 3-8 years, get paid somewhere around $27000-$30000 and lastly the most experienced one, working for more than 8 years earn around $30000-$35000 per year. Besides experience, the size of the organization also matters a lot. The medical assistant salary range in bigger organizations with a large scope of duties is certainly more than small health care clinics.

By now, you must have got a fair understanding of the job description, educational requirements and most importantly the pay scale for medical assistants. Start with a small clinic or any health care organization at the initial phase of your career. Handle all the tasks yourself and gain considerable knowledge and practical experience. Believe me, these two would serve as vital tools for quoting higher pay scales in larger organizations. Good Luck for your Career!