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The Importance Of A Certified Medical Assistant
A certified medical assistant(CMA)is a health professional that comprises the foundation of most doctor’s offices, hospitals and clinics. These dedicated men and women have the all-important supporting roles in any well-run, efficient, and high functioning medical facility. Although medical assistants are not required to be certified, about 90% of them seek certification voluntarily. Many have two-year college degrees as well as extensive real-world experience in hospitals, private doctor’s offices or public and private clinics. Obtaining a certification means that the assistant has been credentialed by an agency that requires testing and is certified to have met minimum, basic standards of professional education and experience.
These health professionals specialize in every major field of medicine that doctors and nurses do. In addition, there are also administrative assistants who assist with patient charts, medical billing, and the administrative duties on a day-to-day basis. The importance of these dedicated and supportive individuals cannot be understated. With salaries much lower than that of physicians or registered nurses, it is these steadfast assistants that help keep health care costs within the range of affordability for most people. Without them, the standard of care would suffer with undue pressure placed on doctors and nurses to perform even the most simple procedures themselves.
While many such assistants are career health workers, there are a number who are performing the duties of an assistant while attending medical school, college or pursuing other educational goals on their way to becoming a doctor, a nurse or other health care professional. It is a certified medical assistant who often changes the dressing on a wound, assists the x-ray technician, draws blood, logs medical details and information at the behest of a doctor or nurse, or conducts the intake interview for an outpatient or in an emergency room. In particular the field of Gerontology employs a great many CMA’s.
With widely varying duties, these important assistants are the backbone of any medical facility obeying the commands of doctors and nurses on a day-to-day basis, as well as seeing to the comfort of each patient. A valuable and rewarding career enjoyed by many, it is also one of the easiest careers to achieve in a relatively short period of time.