After acquiring a Diploma as a Medical Assistant and clearing the CMA (Certified Medical Assistant) examination, you will become entitled to many career prospects.
Whether in the field of Medical Assisting or the Heath care sector, you will attain plenty of in-demand skills and competencies for numerous alternative career opportunities.
In fact, many Medical Assistants consider the skills and expertise they obtain during their work as mere steps to other promising health care professions.
Today, we will highlight 5 such alternative career options in Health Care for a Medical Assistant.
Let’s begin!
- Surgical Technologist
Role: Also known as ‘Surgical technicians’, they are entrusted to prep operating rooms and prepping patients for their procedures.
Their roles include –
- Properly sterilising surgical instruments
- Preparing for surgical equipment
- Holding retractors during operations for doctors
- Helping out in surgeries
- Cleaning and addressing wounds post-operation
- Taking patients to their rooms
A surgical technologist/technician will need to operate in various health care environments. The common ones include outpatient care facilities, dentist’s centres, nursing homes and offices of physicists.
Education & Certificate Pre-requisites: To operate as a surgical technologist, you will require an NBSTSA (National Board of Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting) certification. And to appear for their examination, you will have to undergo a course program specialising in Surgical Technology!
Expected Salaries
You will make an hourly wage of $26, and your annual average salary will be $54 000. However, if you’re in the top 90th percentile, you will earn an hourly wage of $36, and your median salary will be $76,000 per annum.
- EKG Technician
Role: EKG or Electrocardiograph technicians have to assist doctors in determining and curing various cardiovascular conditions. To do that, an EKG technician will conduct on-demand diagnostic tests, namely-
- Telemetry monitoring
- Stress checks
- Electrocardiograms
Through these tests, an EKG technician will determine if the patient is having a heart attack and aid in averting such attacks along with other cardiovascular conditions.
They also go by the name cardiovascular technicians and have to operate in health care establishments, hospitals, in & outpatient facilities, GP offices and even in offices of cardiologists.
Education & Certificate Prerequisites: If you have a medical assistant diploma, you will be given on-job training to become an EKG technician. The training takes about 4-6 weeks. Plus, you’ll be encouraged to procure a certification from CCI (Cardiovascular Credentialing International).
Expected Salaries:
You will make an hourly wage of $30, and your annual average salary will be $62 000. But if you are in the top 90th percentile, you will make an hourly wage of $47, and your median salary will be $98,000 per annum.
- Hospital Health Unit Clerk
Role: Also known as ward clerks, a hospital health unit clerk will be entrusted to deliver clerical and admin support to the clinical department.
They have to ensure all medical records, patient data files and lab reports are correctly filled and preserved. Moreover, a hospital health unit clerk will function conjointly with the nursing and medical crew to provide optimal patient care.
Besides these primary roles, a ward clerk also attends phone calls, arranges supplies for their team and distributes emails.
A hospital health unit clerk will usually need to operate inside a health care office. However, occasionally, they will need to work online and serve the role of virtual assistants.
Education & Certificate Pre-requisites: A diploma in Medical Assisting proves helpful if you wish to operate as a hospital health unit clerk. You will also require a sound working knowledge of the health care sector.
Expected Salaries
You will make an hourly wage of $19, and your annual average salary will be $39 000. But if you are in the top 90th percentile, you will make an hourly wage of $28, and your median salary will be $59,000 per annum.
- Phlebotomy Technician
Role: A phlebotomy technician will be entrusted to draw blood from donors and patients. They will also prepare blood samples for further medical tests when diagnosing a particular illness or condition.
These individuals also explain to patients about their treatments, update records of patients and even prep lab equipment and apparatuses.
Phlebotomy technicians mainly operate in diagnostic labs, doctors’ offices, and nursing homes. And at times, they even have to travel to care centres, patients’ houses and other health care environments where the blood work is done.
Education & Certificate Prerequisites: If you are pursuing your medical assistant diploma, you will get training in Phlebotomy. Of course, if you want, you can sit for the Certified Phlebotomy Technician (CPT) examination presented by the NHA – National Healthcare Association.
Expected Salaries:
You will make an hourly wage of $19, and your annual average salary will be $38 000. But if you are in the top 90th percentile, you will make an hourly wage of $23, and your median salary will be $49,000 per annum.
- Medical Claim Examiner
Role: A medical claim examiner deals with medical insurance of customers. They aid in determining the insurance coverage and even serve as their insurer of insurance agencies.
A medical claim examiner also reviews customers’ insurance claims and ensures every inputted detail is accurate. They also ensure that all prerequisites are met before the claim is approved.
Moreover, per their inspection and validation, a medical claim examiner will also be accountable for transactions made or further investigation of the claim if discrepancies are found.
Education & Certificate Pre-requisites: You will require an HS diploma or degree relating to the medical field. You can also procure a diploma in Medical Assisting to apply for the role of a Medical Claim Examiner.
Expected Salaries:
Your hourly wage will be $34 on average, and your annual salary will be $71 000. That said, if you belong among the top 90th percentiles, you will earn an hourly wage of $45 and an annual salary of $101,000.
To Cap Off:
Besides these, there are many other roles in the health care sector that you can explore after getting your diploma or degree in Medical Assisting.
There is ample scope for further growth from each of these job prospects. And the best part is you work in some of the top hospitals, nursing homes or health care institutes worldwide.
Of course, if you are still pursuing your HS and plan to take up an MA (Medical Assistant) degree/diploma as your college study specialisation, you will have to focus on your present.
Contrarily, suppose you have already completed your HS and are stuck preparing an academic essay for your college. In that case, you can always take the help of the free Punctuation Checker Tool Onlineto remove writing blemishes.
But if unfortunately, you are out of time, then you can take help from online assignment help specialists and request them to write your assignment paper for you.
Pick one, visit their website, learn about them, see what free tools they use (like Probability Calculator, plagiarism checker, etc.) and speak to them about your assignment.
Author’s Bio
Cindy O Connor is a full time academic assignment writer associated with My Assignment help websites. She also loves to teach and imparts course learning and awareness of probability checker, punctuation checker tool online to students in need. Besides teaching and writing assignments, Cindy also loves to cook and bake for her children and regularly enjoys feasts on Sundays with her family and close comrades.
