The Medical Assistant performs administrative and certain clinical duties under the direction of physician. The administrative duties may include scheduling appointments, maintaining medical records, billing, and coding for insurance purposes. The Medical Assistants clinical duties may include taking and recording vital signs and medical histories, preparing patients for examination, drawing blood, and administering medications as directed by physician.
Tasks for Medical Assistant
- The Medical Assistant records patients’ medical history, vital statistics and information such as test results in medical records.
- The Medical Assistant prepares treatment rooms for patient examinations, keeping the rooms neat and clean.
- The Medical Assistant interviews patients to obtain medical information and measure their vital signs, weight, and height.
- The Medical Assistant authorizes drug refills and provides prescription information to pharmacies.
- The Medical Assistant cleans and sterilizes instruments and dispose of contaminated supplies.
- The Medical Assistant prepares and administers medications as directed by a physician.
- The Medical Assistant shows patients to examination rooms and prepares them for the physician.
- The Medical Assistant explains treatment procedures, medications, diets and physicians’ instructions to patients.
- The Medical Assistant helps physicians examine and treats patients, handing them instruments and materials or performing such tasks as giving injections or removing sutures.
- The Medical Assistant collects blood, tissue or other laboratory specimens, log the specimens, and prepare them for testing.
The Medical Assistant needs the knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar. The Medical Assistant needs knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures. The Medical Assistant needs knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs, assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction The Medical Assistant needs knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology. The Medical Assistant needs knowledge of human behavior and performance, individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation, psychological research methods, and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders. The Medical Assistant needs knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Skills and Abilities for a Medical Assistant
The Medical Assistant needs certain skills and abilities in order to perform their job function. The Medical Assistant must give full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times. The Medical Assistant needs the ability to talk to others to convey information effectively. They need to be aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do. The Medical Assistant assesses performance of you, other individuals or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action. The Medical Assistant needs to be able to understand written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents. They need to be able to use logic and reason to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems. The Medical Assistant communicates effectives in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience. The Medical Assistant adjusts actions in relation to the actions of others’ so that they can properly take care of their clients. The Medical Assistant needs to actively look for ways to help people. The Medical Assistant needs the ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so other will understand. They also need the ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentence. The Medical Assistant needs the ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem. The Medical Assistant needs the ability to speak clearly so others can understand them especially when they are giving instructions to a patient on how to take a medication or do procedures necessary for the patient’s personal care.