Once you have your medical assistant certification, you will venture into the workforce to begin your career. While your core certification is important, additional training and certification programs are available for you to expand your knowledge. You will also need soft skills to be an effective team member. Here are some ways to increase your value to your employer.
What Skills Did Your Training Provide?
Completing accelerated medical assistant programs is the first step toward your medical assistant career. At the end of your training, you should have a firm grasp of clinical skills such as giving injections, removing stitches, and educating patients. Administrative skills you learned include answering phones, updating patient records, and coding insurance forms.
What Certifications Should I Earn?
Many employers ask their medical assistants to take additional classes in phlebotomy. This teaches you how to draw blood from patients. It is also used in intravenous therapy – medication is given via IV directly through a blood vein. Consider expanding your experience on this skill early in your career.
You can also earn certifications based on the type of medical service provided. Some of these programs include:
- Geriatrics
- Oncology
- Transplantation Surgery
- Pediatrics
- Dermatology
- OB/GYN
What Skills Do Employers Want?
Because your medical assistant certification shows you have been trained in certain skills, it is important to expand your training to acknowledge the soft skills you can bring to the facility. Soft skills are those core abilities that all jobs require – critical thinking, attitude, and work ethic. These skills help you become a valuable member of the team.
Honesty, compassion, and reliability are core skills that you will need. With a firm grasp of these qualities, your management team, staff, and clients trust your work and are more responsive to your suggestions.
Being compassionate and non-judgmental go a long way in your career. Patients want to feel their concerns are heard and acknowledged.
Employers seek out employees that maintain self-control and are even-tempered under pressure. Especially in a medical environment, the team needs to be able to keep their emotions under control when emergencies arise. Difficult patients need a calm demeanor to help them receive the care they need.
Communication skills are critical to the medical assistant. You should be able to communicate effectively with both the medical staff and your patients. Patients will frequently seek clarification after the doctor or nurse has left the room. You should be able to restate the doctor’s orders clearly in easy-to-understand terminology.
Your listening skills will be challenged. Patients don’t always explain what they are experiencing when they are in trauma. Even just going to a medical facility for a routine checkup can be stressful for many people. When you see these signs of stress, advocate for your patient. Ask probing questions to help the doctor diagnose the symptoms.
Above all, be flexible. Flexibility allows you to smoothly move from one patient to another, meeting their needs calmly and professionally.
Increasing your knowledge and improving your soft skills are core strategies to being an effective medical assistant. With a strong foundation in all of these skills, you will have a successful career.
