Why Become a Medical Assistant?

In recent years, the medical assistant has become indispensable to many areas in the healthcare industry and medical field. Medical assistants find positions in doctors' offices, physician group practices, hospitals, and wellness clinics where they perform their daily tasks. According to the Labor Department's Occupational Outlook Handbook there were 417,000 medical assistants employed in 2006; it is estimated that this figure will increase by 35% to 565,000 medical assistants employed in 2016.

People who choose the medical assistant profession as a career path understand that anywhere where there are people there are doctors which indicates their job is secure; where there are doctors there are medical assistants to help doctors and care for their patients.

Many Titles of Medical Assistant

Medical assistants have many official and informal titles, from certified to registered medical assistant (CMA, RMA), certified clinical, or certified administrative medical assistant (CCMA, CMAA), medical office assistant, front desk medical assistant, back office medical assistant, doctor's assistant, specialty certified medical assistant, student medical assistant (SMA), and "just" medical assistant (MA).

Why Choose the Medical Assistant Profession

1. I wanted to belong to a group of skilled allied health professionals and support them as a team. My goal was to be expertly trained to function as an important member of the health care team as a whole and make a difference in my community.
2. I wanted to work as part of a patient-service team in close contact with doctors, dentists, nurses and physical therapists.

Others Become Medical Assistants Because:

Why Did You Want to Be a Medical Assistant? Share why you chose the medical assisting profession and we might post it here! Name: E-mail: (optional) Reasons:

I love working with and helping people and I think that I am very good at it. --- Lakisha Moore   I did not want to sit behind a desk every day and do the same thing day in and day out. --- Cara  I enjoy working in the medical field and interacting with people. --- Denise

From many posts in medical assistant job message boards and medical assistant online discussion forums we gather that working medical assistants are not always happy with their level of compensation and pay. Although they always earn more than the minimum wage, most medical assistants feel it is not commensurate with the amount of work and responsibilities they have in a busy medical office.

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