Monday 23 January 2012

Medical Assistants

Introduction
As we know health sciences industry has become a promising industry that provide huge number of job opportunities for individuals who have natural desire to help others. Qualified professionals are required to work on various clinical and non clinical jobs. Due to this rising demand of well trained health science professionals, it can be a good decision to join this lucrative field as a medical assistant. These professionals are capable to manage various administrative, clerical and clinical duties in healthcare facility. In order to make more clear understanding about medical assistants, you will have to make clear understanding about duties of these professionals as well as the tasks they are not allowed to do.
Definition of Medical Assistant
Medical Assistants are not licensed professionals usually work in large or small medical units, physician offices and health clinics where they perform routine task of medical offices, physician clinics and health clinics. They are trained enough to tackle clinical and administrative issues as well as specific task in therapeutic departments. They usually don’t work in nursing care units and hospitals. This is a rewarding healthcare career and huge number of men and women are attracted to join this health sciences field. A qualified professional can work under supervision of physician, registered nurses, occupational and physical therapist, respiratory therapist and lot of other allied healthcare professionals. Medical Assistants are specific healthcare professionals who are entirely different from nurses (Licensed Practical nurses certified Nurse’s Aides and certified Nephrology Nurses) and other non-licensed professionals like Emergency Medical Assistants, Physician Assistants, and Medicine Aides. Even few of them show similarity in abbreviations with medical assistants. A doctor, nurse or physicians have to be present physically when these professionals are involved in providing any direct patient care services to patients.

Categories of Medical Assistants
There are 4 major categories of medical assistants. Every professional in a category possess unique set of skills and different training to carryout different duties in medical care units. Irrespective to training and skills that all professionals possess, they are allowed to work under direct supervision of authorized medical and health science professionals in outpatient care units, medical offices, surgical and ambulatory facilities, correctional and rehab units, colleges and universities. Following are 4 major types of these professionals.
  • Administrative medical assistants
  • Clinical medical assistants
  • Ophthalmic medical assistants
  • Podiatric medical assistants

Administrative Medical Assistants
Administrative Medical Assistants are responsible to update and maintain medical records of patients. They perform primary administrative tasks like filling out insurance forms for hospital admissions and relevant laboratory services.

Clinical Medical Assistants
Clinical Medical Assistants can perform various duties according to specific state laws. Common duties include writing patient’s medical history, observing vital signs and preparing patient’s for medical examinations, helping physicians during patient examination and explaining treatment procedures to patients.





Ophthalmic Medical Assistants
Ophthalmic Medical Assistants are specialized medical assistant who are capable to provide additional services and duties to assist ophthalmologists. They are trained to provide eye care services under supervision of eye specialists.




 
Podiatric Medical Assistants
Podiatric Medical Assistants are qualified to explain therapeutic exercises to patients under supervision of podiatrist. They also guide patients to wrap and bandage feet, keep examination room clean and arrange all instruments and equipments ready to use. Furthermore, they also look after purchase and maintain equipment’s supplies.




Job Description of Medical Assistant 
A qualified worker can perform range of different duties according to his/her knowledge and skills. Whatever the responsibilities that any medical assistant has to fulfill, their routine is very busy and they have to complete multiple tasks. Common tasks and duties that a professional has to execute include registration of new patients, maintaining new/old patient’s records, issue appointments, validate health insurance coverage for every patient, maintaining and organizing examination rooms, collect and process payments, update medical records, help doctors and physician during patient’s examination,  obtain and arrange lab reports and answering patient’s calls. You don’t need a license to work as a medical assistant. A well trained professional is able to fulfill important duties that are equally important and rewarding like clinical services offered by direct patient care services. Medical professionals assign different duties to these assistants employed under them. Their major role is to provide support to doctors to better understand and diagnose patients. They also treat patients in a very polite way and provide guidance to follow doctor’s advice.

Overview of Medical Assistant Duties
To further make you clearly understand about role of Medical Assistants in any healthcare facility, following is a quick overview of their duties.
  • Recording patient’s vital signs
  • Collection and preparation of specimens for laboratory tests
  • Sterilization medical equipments
  • Disposal of contaminated supplies
  • Preparation and administration of medicines prescribed by doctors
  • Guide patients to use medicines and specific diets
  • Call and coordinate with authorized pharmacies to get medicines for patients
  • Keep equipments, examination room and waiting area organize and sterilized
  • Also maintain medicines stocks and other supplies

Medical assistants also guide patients about how to use crutches or walker in a safe way. Their major aim is to provide adequate care to every patient who visit and leave doctor’s office or medical care units. They also assist patients in sudden medical emergencies and inform doctors about critical events.

Conclusion
Becoming a medical assistant does not require any formal health sciences degree. Interested candidates usually take on job training and relevant education to become a professional. You can pursue one year certification or two years associate of health sciences degree from any community or vocational college. Medical Assistant belongs to entry level job options available among healthcare careers.
 



Sunday 8 January 2012

Healthcare Careers that Help You Persist During High Recession


 
Introduction

You must have noticed that there is a high recession in economy in recent years and it is not stable right now. This economic downfall also destabilizes and reduces job opportunities in different occupation. It has become difficult to maintain a healthy sound career for professionals in different fields. Due to current downsizing in employment, fresh candidates have become very conscious to select any occupation to pursue as a career in future. Considering all these factors about economic issues it has observed that various professions are still retain stability and don’t get affected much like healthcare, information technology and education. Healthcare is grouped among the largest industries in USA with work force of 14 million in 2006 that is expected to grow about three million additional job opportunities in year 2016 (BLS report). There are hundreds of different jobs available in healthcare profession. Like all other professions healthcare also offer highest compensation packages and good salaries for individuals holding higher level degrees and low salary with small benefits for those pursuing lower level health sciences degrees. People have become very careful to choose suitable career for their future life. They consider primary things like time and education required to earn good salaries earned in future. Good thing about healthcare profession is that there are few healthcare careers that fulfill all criteria to rapidly progress in professional world.


Healthcare Careers that Help You Persist During High Recession

Almost all jobs in healthcare sector require some level of degree and work experience to progress and survive during high recession. If you have relevant degree in health sciences you can become a qualified and successful healthcare professional in any specific specialization of your choice. Healthcare industry progresses continuously due to huge aging population and current advancement in technology. Following are some famous healthcare careers that are considered among few healthcare careers that let you persist under high recession conditions.

  • Healthcare Management and Administration Careers
  • Medical Healthcare Careers
  • Therapist Careers
  • Diagnostic Careers


Healthcare Management and Administration Careers

With an associates or bachelors level degree in the field of health sciences you become eligible to join any career in the field of healthcare management and administration. There is a broad range of careers available in this area of specialization. Depending on the level of your education you can join assistant or manager level positions in healthcare facilities. Specific healthcare management and administration careers include medical transcriptionist, medical office secretaries, medical coders, medical record keepers, office mangers or medical administrators. Expected job growth rate in this area is estimated to 18% in year 2018.

Medical Healthcare Careers

Medical healthcare careers require an associates, bachelors or doctorate level health sciences degrees. You will be working as a healthcare professional like doctor, nurse or therapist as well as assistant for healthcare professionals like doctors, RN nurses, occupational or physical therapist. As we know that baby boomer population is aging rapidly, it enhances the need of well trained and qualified healthcare professionals. Interested candidates can even start their medical healthcare careers as an assistant and learn essential skills on job. But an associates or bachelors health sciences degree is very helpful to gain and learn all necessary knowledge and skills to carry out routine tasks in healthcare facilities. You will have to complete your required degree in medical sciences to qualify for job. Graduate students of medical assisting degree programs are capable to become licensed practical nurse, physician assistant and registered nurse. All medical healthcare careers will remain in demand during high recession because qualified healthcare professionals are always required to provide better health services to populations. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics job growth rate is predicted to rise 35% between the years 2006 and 2016.  

Therapist Careers
Respiratory therapist, occupational therapist and physical therapist are three major healthcare careers in this field. All of these three careers require bachelor’s level health sciences degree to become a professional. They are well trained healthcare professionals that utilize different relevant techniques to treat patients. The main cause of these professionals to improve quality of life of people having disorders like respiratory issues, mentally and physically disabled peoples and patients having some muscle injuries that don’t let them to move and work properly. Again these jobs will be less affected during recession time, because skilled professionals can also start their work privately or they can join various work settings like hospitals, schools, rehabs and sports.

Diagnostic Careers
Some individuals are more interested to perform diagnostic services that help doctors and physician to treat patients accurately. For such personals various careers are available in the field of allied health services. Diagnostic medical sonographer, cardiovascular technologist and radiologists are some of the famous diagnostic healthcare careers. Associates or bachelors level education is required to get success and good compensation with job security in future. According to BLS employment will exceed to 24% during the year of 2008 and 2018. Diagnostic careers will remain almost unaffected from recession because health practitioners and doctors rely more on these diagnostic techniques to develop accurate treatment plan. Moreover, technology advancements also create jobs for qualified technologists.

EndNote
As you can see that it is not necessary that all healthcare professions help you to survive during high recession. Each healthcare career has its own merits and demerits. All careers allow qualified professionals to earn different at different times. There is no guarantee to remain unaffected during economic recession in any field including healthcare profession. Only thing that can save you is making careful occupational choices and obtaining relevant health sciences degrees and certifications. You need to identify that healthcare career you are going to join provide such services that people avail them as need rather than want.