Medical assistants are key members of health care facilities. Qualified medical assistants are in great demand in the modern medical practice and are usually employed in hospitals and other general and specialized medical offices. Medical assisting is a versatile health care career where the professional has to interact with many patients. Most of the people consider medical assisting as a stepping stone to many other health care careers. While some of the medical assistants enter into teaching job, other take additional courses and become nurses. Since medical assistants are not licensed to treat patients, they work under a licensed health care professional. Their duties vary depending on their work location. However, in general they perform tasks such as checking the vital signs of the patients; preparing the patients for examination; scheduling patient appointment and so on.
Like any other job, there are lots of factors which affect the medical assistant salary. Some of the key factors that plays major role in salary are; geographical location, the organization, level of education, previous work experience, area of specialty and certification.
Geographical area plays a major role in the earning potential of a medical assistant. Medical assistants who live in big cities like Houston, Boston, New York city earn more than the professionals in the smaller cities. This discrepancy in the salary is due to the high cost of living and a higher minimum wage in the big cities.
Medical assistant salary also depends on what kind of employer he/she works for. Hospital has large number of inpatients and outpatients and the responsibilities of medical assistants are higher in a hospital when compared to a private medical office. Hence medical assistants who work for large hospitals earn better salary than medical assistants who are working in a private clinic.
Certification or degree is one of the important factors in succeeding medical assistant job. Even though there are no federal or state laws that mandate a medical assistant to be certified, health care professionals prefer to hire people with certification or some kind of degree in this field. Certifications indicate that medical assistants meet the required standards of health care facility. The designated courses cover anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, medical terminologies, transcription and other administrative tasks. The medical assistant courses train their students in laboratory techniques, handling the patients, making the patients feel comfortable and giving physician’s instructions to the patients. It also teaches the students how to keep the patient confidentiality and other manual dexterity required to handle a clinic. Since, certified medical assistants are more qualified than their counterparts, they enjoy a better wage.
Previous work experience is another critical factor in deciding the salary of a medical assistant. Experienced medical assistants handle more responsible duties and are able to concentrate more and finish the tasks faster than the professionals without experience. Medical assistants learn a great deal of matters in their job. Medical assistants with several years of experience work as office manager and other advanced administrative professionals. The starting salary of a medical assistant is comparatively lesser than the average medical assistant salary.
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Even though salary of a medical assistant is tailored depending on the individual’s circumstances, on an average a medical assistant earns from $25,000 to $30,000. According salary.com, the top 10 percent of earners in this field get $ 33,335 or more.
As per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, medical assisting will be one of the fastest growing health care careers through 2016. The expected employment growth in this field is around 35%. Medical assisting is an ideal career for someone who is looking forward to working with a health care professional while enjoying a promising salary.
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