How to become a medical assistant is a question anyone interested in medical assisting needs to ask considering all the healthcare offers found out there. Training is key to fulfilling the dream of a career in the medical assistant field. It is a popular choice for many people who want to earn a good salary while helping people to get well. It is not practically impossible to get a doctor assistant’s position without training as you can learn on the job but these chances are pretty rare.

Most training is carried out in colleges that are approved by the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA). Some schools including private ones offer training online and some are recognized by the AAMA. Learning online is not for everyone as there will a lack of a practical setting to observe the tasks being taught though it is not impossible to learn online. It may be ideal for people already working in a medical setting. Previous volunteer work in hospitals may be very useful in this regard. The training usually lasts one year (for a diploma) and covers in general these areas: physiology, anatomy, and medical terminology, transcription, recordkeeping, typing, accounting, and even insurance processing. They also study medical law, relations with patients, medical administration and principles of pharmacy and other courses central to a medical career. At the end of the training, students take exams and have to undergo a practical internship to complete the training successfully.

You can choose any of the many positions within the medical field like radiology assistant, emergency medical technician, or physician assistant, physical therapy assistant, medical examiner assistant.

The American Association of Medical Assistants is the most well known certification body. There are other certifying bodies; find out which ones are in your area. Certification means that one is competent and has more credibility and so increases the chances of employment. The employment chances of medical assistants will grow 35% more than other occupations in 2007-2016 so the chances of employment are very good. With experience and more training you can advance to other jobs in the medical field. You can retrain to be a clinical officer or go to university and specialize in a particular field.

Medical assistants are a very important part of the medical field because without them doctors would be overworked and would have little time to dedicate to managing the health of their clients. They have to do research to help them in diagnosis and sometime have to travel to more than one place to see patients. Without medical assistants this would not be possible.