Today’s medical and healthcare systems tend to work on an overload due to a variety of factors. However, future trends indicate that the healthcare systems will have more funds pumped into the system for a huge growth spike. This means that more jobs for healthcare professionals will be available. In other words, this industry is going to boom very shortly. Thus, it’s a perfect time to invest in your education towards a medical, allied health service. In case you’re wondering, you must put in the work to find near you the absolute best medical assistant training programs.
Why is Medical Assisting a Good Idea?
Although a medical and nursing degree requires a lot of money and patience, the medical assistant programs and training courses near you do not. This is an area of allied health services which is exponentially increasing and being integrated with various other departments. If you wish to become a medical assistant, you need a degree certified by the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA), American Medical Technologists (AMT), or National Center for Competency Training (NCCT).
Apart from the research needed to be done to find the right medical assistant specializations near you, there are a few essential points which you need to keep in mind. The internet has put all the world’s information at our fingertips. It is imperative that we utilize it to find out as much as we possibly can about potential training programs. The specializations that come with different medical assistantships have their own pros and cons. However, at the very base of this foundation, there are a few things that you need to look out for at the very outset of your application period.
Important Considerations for Choosing the Right MA Programs
We have compiled a list below what we consider to be the 5 most essential points to consider before choosing a medical assistant program that suits your interests.
- School Accreditation
One of the major issues that students face today is applying to schools that have doubtful accreditation. Due to the large number of schools popping up nationwide, it is easy to acquire accreditation via illegal means or faulty methods. You must conduct proper research and check if the school you are interested in has valid credentials. If they don’t, the degree that they provide at the end of the course could mean absolutely nothing, and most of your hard-earned money would go down the gutter.
- Fees
The student loan debts have reached a stage where it may even cripple the student due to the high-interest rates. You should check if the school offers scholarships that provide a full fee or part fee waiver. It would be best if you kept in mind that there are very few schools that can actually manage extremely low tuition fees for their students. If the fees indicated on their websites or brochures seem too good to be real, they probably are. There might be hidden costs of fees that they slide into the footnotes to dupe students into joining their subpar training courses.
- Experience
Practical experience is extremely important as a medical assistant as the job itself requires the person to learn on the fly. Each case is different and needs the person to be quick-witted and to think on their feet. This is almost impossible if the student has little to no practical experience. Make sure to check the course curriculum of a particular school before you decide to join their program. Likely, the lesser-known schools do not have affiliations with medical facilities or hospitals and completely forego the practical part of the learning experience. Whether it is internships or externships, as a medical assistant, you need all the practical exposure you can get. Not only does this better your CV by miles as compared to your competition, but it also creates a rich environment for you to thrive in.
- Instructors
Every good student needs a great teacher or instructor. It is the instructor who is responsible for providing you with the best guidance and direction at the beginning of your career. You need to interact with multiple instructors and see who is relevant to the specialized field you want to pursue. Not all instructors will be friendly or willing to understand your situation and interests.
You have to find instructors whose backgrounds and philosophies are similar to yours so that they will be able to give you the best advice regarding your future career. Some instructors also have great connections with important people relevant in the field and can actually work wonders for your CV and career in general. Make sure to look up the Faculty pages of various schools’ websites and contact the instructors.
- School Alumni
The best schools in the country are more than likely to keep a record of past students on their websites. This list includes data on where the students are working now, their annual salaries, and other such information. You need to conduct your research on this properly as there is a cost to benefit ratio on the line here. If you are paying the tuition fees, then it also depends on what the returns on your investments are. To get more precise insights, you can always compare the alumni’s annual salaries to the national average on BLS Job Outlook Handbook.
Conclusion
The medical assistant occupation in the healthcare industry is definitely branching out into different territories. It is expected to grow at 19% through 2028, which is higher than most average occupations, as BLS May 2019 estimates. Not only are medical assistants doing more technical work, such as handling machines and computer coding, but they are also interacting with patients more and taking care of their insurance work.
This profession is truly a noble one and has a tremendous growth rate for the future. If you covet to become a medical assistant, make sure to conduct a thorough amount of research before deciding on a school and specializations.