Medical assistant training programs in Connecticut teach aspirants and prepare them to gain professional employment in medical clinics and larger healthcare institutions. They enable candidates to get a foothold into a profession which ensures good remuneration, high all-year-round demand, and respectful work; even in today’s unpredictable economy.
What Medical Assistants Do?
Medical assistants handle administrative and clinical tasks in the offices of physicians, medical specialists, and in larger healthcare setups. Their duties vary with the location, specialty, and size of the practice.
Some regular duties would include:
- Scheduling and managing doctors’ appointments
- Managing patient information and personal history
- Measuring patients’ vital signs using specialized equipment
- Giving injections
- Phlebotomy
Skills Required:
Medical assistants help doctors and medical practitioners in making the office administrative processes more efficient. Obviously, such work requires various technical and managerial skill sets.
- Administrative Skills: Administrative skills include the nuances of office management, planning, and documentation as per government and insurance norms. All healthcare institutions have a set of generic administration needs, but some may also have specific administrative requirements. Factors such as size (big or medium vs. small), ownership (public vs. private healthcare center), type of facilities (general vs. specialized health care), and cost of treatment (high-end vs. charitable healthcare center) may demand different administration skills. A medical assistant should be well-trained to be able to adapt to the employer’s general and specific needs.
- Medical Skills: Medical skills include knowledge of invasive procedures such as giving injections as well as phlebotomy, administering first aid, measuring patient’s vital signs, and basic maintenance of medical equipment.
- EHR: In today’s digital age, EHR (Electronic Health Records) is fast becoming an integral part of a medical assistant’s work-life. Being conversant with computing as well as EHR software and codes is essential. The digital divide is working in favor of medical assistants who are willing to train themselves or re-train themselves in the use of EHR and related computing technologies.
- Soft Skills: Scheduling appointments and handling patients is one of the core duties of a medical assistant. This requires high emotional intelligence and the capability to remain calm in medical emergency or other pressure situations, and for effectively dealing with irate or anxious patients and their guardians.
Job Outlook:
With a 30% nationwide projected demand over the next decade, this profession is way above the national occupational averages in its job outlook. Such high demand is being fueled by factors such as an aging generation of baby boomers, increase in lifestyle diseases, wider availability of healthcare facilities, and increased insurance coverage.
While the nationwide median pay for medical assistants is nearly $14 per hour, Connecticut ranks amongst the top states in terms of remuneration, with a much higher median salary of $20 per hour. Continuously, an increasing number of job aspirants are taking up medical assistant training programs in Connecticut and entering the profession to enjoy the higher salaries.
Eligibility:
Any person with a high school diploma can gain entry into the profession.
Most states including Connecticut do not require certification and it remains optional. Pre-employment training is not compulsory but is highly preferred by employers as they want an employee who can start working immediately and deliver error-free, smooth and efficient functioning while also avoiding any legal troubles arising from lack of training. Due to this reason it is recommended that an aspirant should join a reputed medical assistant training program prior to applying for professional employment.
