Pros and Cons of Medical Assistant Job

On the agenda of the list of pros and cons of being a medical assistant, it is easier said than done to pull every aspect together. This is because of the reason that a positive aspect for one individual will be considered as a negative aspect by the other person. For instance, a few people will enjoy the type of job where they get to interact with other people. Despite the fact that some other people would like to work in a profession where they are allowed to work independently by doing new investigation or examination. If you have decided to develop into a professional medical assistant, it is very important to scrutinize both the benefits and drawbacks from side to side with the help of the own standpoint of your personal predilection.

Carefully examine all the points given below to know whether each aspect of the medical assistant profession is a merit or a demerit in your point of view. After that, think about the relative significance and worth of each and every aspect before you come to a conclusion.

Pros (Benefits)

Great Job protection: More or less, every profession in the health care meadow has a safe and secure job reinforcement. For this reason, medical assistant profession has the identical job security and several job opportunities. In point of fact, people have need of a good health care facility, irrespective of their financial and economic conditions. In addition, physicians call for some professional medical assistants so as to endow the patients with highly superior health care services. In order to meet both patients and health care industry requirements, more professional medical assistants are needed. Based on the statistical studies done by the ‘Bureau of Labor Statistics’, the medical assisting career will persist to be one of the rapidly-growing medical fields all the way through the year 2018. Hence, there is a great hope that medical assistants shall never face any issues in finding or protecting their employment.

Short period of training: Generally, medical assistants will finish their schooling in a professional University, college or institute within a year or two. On the other hand, the majority of other occupations in the health care field calls for a more prescribed and sophisticated edification that may take more than 3 years to complete. For instance, physicians or doctors have to finish 7-years of proper schooling or sometimes even more. In addition, they need to accomplish their internship programs in a successful manner. In the same way, nurses should look forward to spend their training period in a recognized school for about 4 to 5 years. Quite the reverse, a medical assistant may not need a post-secondary schooling in order to get started in his career. This is because, some clinics and hospitals supply on-the-job training for entry level employees.

Great knowledge expansion: As an advantage, all medical assistants will have the opportunity to experiment a lot of new technologies in the medical field and at the same time gain knowledge in an assortment of medical courses such as, medical terms & expressions, anatomy, physiology, bookkeeping, computer keyboard techniques and patient relationships. Moreover, they get to know about a number of innovative laboratory techniques and contemporary medical procedures as well.

A platform for further education: At the present time, a number of medical assistants pursue additional schooling in many other health care fields such as, nursing and medical billing and coding while they still earn. Hence, if you are unsure and hesitant to get into a job (in the health care field) that take account of a prolonged schooling period and demands more money in order to get started, you can very well consider the medical assisting profession (as your initial job) that lets you earn and at the same time as allowing you to dig out several other alternatives in the health care meadow.

An assortment of  job duties: A few medical assistants should perform additional duties than merely the administrative jobs. Even though, setting up appointments with doctors, completing and maintaining the health insurance bills and forms, interacting with several patients and other people, responding to the phones calls and dealing with medical billing are some of the major components of the profession. The clinical medical assistants has additional responsibilities to help out the physicians with clinical procedures and minor surgeries. In addition, a medical assistant will do a range of clinical duties such as, disinfect the clinical tools and equipment, record the vital symptoms or signs of the patient health, take out blood samples and change the dressings on the patients. In fact, medical assistants who work with the optometrists will help them in administering the analytical vision examinations. Also, they will educate the patients about the contact lens care and apply eye medicines or eye drops to the patients under the supervision of an optometrist.

Hygienic job background: All medical assistants will perform their job duties in hygienic, spotless and dirt free hospitals, clinics and doctor’s offices.

Cons

Odd job timing: Even though a good number of medical assistants will have a standard forty hours of work weeks, a number of medical assistants are still obliged to work in the evenings on the weekdays and some weekends as well. This odd job timing and tight schedule can interfere with the time they wish to spend on their own or with their family members. However, this may not be the case in most times.

Restricted job responsibilities: Even though a medical assistant can learn an array of medical or clinical technologies, innovative methods and at the same time experience a diversity in their tasks on a daily basis, some of the most important patient treatment methods, clinical procedures and health related conclusions are only left in the hands of the physicians, nurses and other health experts. A medical assistant can support, assist or even perform a few tasks under the direct supervision of a doctor or a nurse (in specific  procedures only). However, he/she may not be permitted to do or decide on major medical issues (or patient treatment methods) by utilizing his/her individual medical expertise. As a result, a person or a medical assistant who really aspires to make a difference or change things in the lives of other people and quite a lot of patients might feel a bit disappointed by this profession.

Comparatively a low compensation package: Based on the studies completed by the ‘Bureau of Labor Statistics’, in the year 2008, the average twelve-monthly remuneration of a medical assistant was estimated to be (more or less) $28,300. According to the website Payscale.com, in the year 2013 the MA’s annual salary range is $20,800 – $37,421. Even though, this numerical figure is not at all a great non-righteousness or a downfall to be worried about, the average remuneration offered to a medical assistant is well thought-out to be a noticeably lower package than the wages that are offered for a good number of other health care professionals.