How to become a better medical assistant?



The medical assistants are health care representatives performing various clinical and administrative tasks in the offices or clinics of physicians, chiropractors and general hospitals for their smooth running. The may or may not have legal status in the various countries based on their government laws.

The medical assistants might be assigned with different types of job at different places based on the need and the demands. Traditionally they are offered jobs in the emergency ambulance care centers, physician's clinics and the critical care facilities. They can perform specialization in any specific clinical fields under the supervision of their administrators or can perform the general official works in the offices of the clinics.

The medical assistants working in the office perform the tasks like filing the reports of the patients properly for the hospital records. They help the patients to fill their insurance forms, handling bills, admissions in the hospital, answering the telephone calls, giving the appointments, handling the correspondences and most importantly greet and assist the patients to their related doctors. They may also have to arrange the examination room equipments and buy the required supplies and instruments if required. They are also responsible for keeping the waiting and examining rooms clean and hygeinic.

The medical assistants specialized in the clinical fields can perform varied tasks like recording the medical history of the patients, observing the vital signs of the disease being suffered by the patient, explaining the procedure of the treatment as decided by the doctors, preparing them for the various examination procedures, collect and prepare the specimens to perform laboratory tests, dispose the contaminated items and sterilize the medical instruments before use. If directed by their administrators they might also have to instruct the patients with their medications and their intervals, authorize the drug refilling, draw blood, take the ECG and sometimes also remove the sutures from the patient's body.

The environment in which the medical assistants work should be very clean and sanitized. They work in well lightened areas and have to interact with a large number people everyday. They are given immense responsibilities to handle at the same time. Thus becoming a well qualified medical assistant is a very difficult and challenging task.

To become a better medical assistant than the thousands of other MAs there are a few basic steps that should be followed during the regular routines.

1.Anticipation: The urge to work should always be there in a good medical assistant. When the patients are in the exam room, it is the job of an MA to make sure the reason of the patients visit and set up the whole room with all the necessary equipments. The MA should accompany the patients till the doctor enters the room.

2.Note the important points: To write the requirements and details provided by the doctors and the patients a small writing pad should be kept in the pocket.

3.Proper documentation: The information provided by the doctors, patients and the other administrators should be clearly specified in the charts so that they can be read and understood easily. Before giving the documentation to the higher authorities, the spellings should be rechecked to avoid misunderstandings.

Thus with high determination and good skills anyone can become an excellent Medical assistant.