Medical Assistant Information

There are a variety of different medical assistant training programs available for those who are interested in this career. These programs are usually available through technical colleges, community colleges, junior colleges, and vocational schools. They typically last for one year if they are awarding a diploma or certificate and for two years if they are awarding an associates degree.

The Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) and the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES) both accredit medical assistant training programs. As there are more programs accredited by CAAHEP, we are going to talk about these programs in this article.

CAAHEP accredits a total of 267 medical assistant training programs that result in associates degrees and 358 degree and certificate programs. These programs are at a total of 569 different schools, spread out through 46 states.

For those who don't have a CAAHEP accredited medical assistant training program near them, there are even two schools that have online distance programs available. These are Kaplan University in Davenport, IA and Spencerian College in Louisville, KY.

For those looking to get prepared for entrance into one of these programs, volunteer work at a health care facility is helpful, as well as high school courses in such topics as biology, bookkeeping, computers, health, mathematics, office skills. and typing. These will help to prepare you for the coursework you will need to complete in your medical assistant training program. Entrance into most programs requires a high school diploma.

Medical assistant classes usually include some that are more administrative in nature, such as accounting, insurance processing, office practices, recordkeeping, transcription, and typing, as well as those more medical in nature like anatomy, the administration of medications, clinical and diagnostic procedures, ethics, first aid, laboratory techniques, medical law, medical terminology, patient relations, pharmaceutical principles, and physiology.

There are some things you should consider when choosing a medical assistant training program. You need to decide whether you would like to attend a shorter program that results in a certificate or whether you would like a longer program that goes more deeply into things and leads to an associates degree. You also need to consider the location, cost, whether or not financial aid is available, what prerequisites are needed, whether an externship is involved and what you need to do to meet this requirement, and whether or not there is an option to study online.

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