If you want a career with plenty of variety, then you may want to consider becoming a medical assistant. For starters, medical assistants work in a variety of settings. Some work in the offices of physicians. Some work in hospitals—inpatient or outpatient. Some work in medical centers or clinics. Because their work settings are so varied, medical assistants are trained for (and perform) a wide variety of duties.

There are four basic categories of medical assistant duties—clerical, administrative, clinical, and specialist. Depending on the employer, the same medical assistant can do one or all four of them.

Clerical

If you’re a clerical medical assistant, you can expect your duties to be similar to those performed in any regular (non-medical) office.

Your medical assistant duties would likely include answering the phones, greeting patients, sorting mail, handling correspondence, filing, typing, and computer data entry. They may also handle billing and bookkeeping tasks. Clerical medical assistants keep the office or other medical facility running smoothly.

Administrative

If you’re an administrative medical assistant, you will also perform clerical duties. But your clerical duties will be much more medical-oriented.

As an administrative medical assistant, you may fill out insurance forms, schedule medical procedures, update patients’ charts, and order lab tests. But you may also do some or all of the tasks of a clerical medical assistant. The responsibility of all of the office systems and patient flow may rest on your shoulders.

Yes, that’s a lot of work. But you will probably never be bored!

Clinical

Clinical medical assistants work more closely with patients, as their focus is more on the medical side of the practice.

Applicable state laws, however, regulate their duties.

Depending on the laws of the state, and the requirements of the medical practice, clinical medical assistants can:

• Take, and record, patient vital signs
• Draw blood
• Prepare patients for medical tests and examinations
• Explain medication side-effects to patients
• Remove sutures
• Administer electrocardiograms
• Collect laboratory specimens from patients
• Purchase medical supplies
• Prepare patients for x-rays

…and the list goes on.

Specialist

Like clinical lab assistants, specialists work closely with patients and perform more medical-related functions. Specialists, however, have the added responsibility of administering duties that are specific to a particular branch of medicine.

This means that a specialist medical assistant has in-depth knowledge of a particular medical field. In a smaller doctor’s office or practice, they perform duties that help the specialist perform his or her job. In larger facilities—such as hospitals and medical centers—they may work within specific medical departments that need their specialized expertise.

What You Need to Succeed

Because medical assistant duties are so varied, you may need a very flexible skill set. Although not a prerequisite for becoming a medical assistant, these skills and personality traits may help you to succeed in this field:

• Multi-tasker: To juggle the varied job duties.
• People person: To handle the varied personalities, and their varied personal situations, that you will encounter while working as a medical assistant.
• Medical mind-set: To understand the theories, the reasons, and the technical aspects of administering medical treatments.