Medical Assistant Training

Medical assistants can be licensed or unlicensed health care workers who perform the administrative and clinical tasks that keep the offices of physicians, podiatrists, chiropractors, and other health practitioners running smoothly. They should not be confused with physician assistants, who examine, diagnose, and treat patients under the supervision of a physician. The term "Medical Assistant" may have legal status in some nations, whereas elsewhere they may be a loosely defined group with medical assistant programs.

They attend medical assistant training programs and have traditionally held jobs almost exclusively in ambulatory care centers, urgent care facilities, and physicians’ clinics, but this is now changing. Medical assistants now find employment in both private and public hospitals, as well as inpatient and outpatient facilities. They assist a wide variety of medical doctors, including specialists such as podiatrists, and are no longer bound as generalists.

Formal education of medical assistants usually occurs in medical assistant schools, technical institutes, community colleges, proprietary colleges, online educational programs or junior colleges. The curriculum presented should be accredited if its graduates plan to become either certified or registered.