Welcome to Medical Assistant Job Description HQ. There is a lot to learn about medical assistants and their duties, and my aim is to provide you with at least almost all the information you need. There are several types of medical assistants, such as medical examiner assistant, dermatology assistant, ophthalmic assistant, paediatric assistant, podiatry assistant, clinical assistant, and administrative assistant, with the last two being the most common.

Medical assistants are indispensable to doctors because they render a lot of assistance in hospitals which gives doctors more time to focus on urgent and more important tasks. Of course, you have to choose what type of medical assistant you want to become, after which you will have to get training and certification to become a recognisable medical assistant and increase your odds of getting a job from 0% to 80+%.

Regarding the duties, you will find articles explaining the duties of other types of medical assistants on this site, but on this particular page, I’ll be focusing on just clinical and administrative medical assistants.

Clinical Medical Assistant Job description

As a clinical medical assistant, expect to be assigned to some or all if these tasks:

1. Drawing the blood of patients for different purposes
2. Sterilising tools and equipment in the clinic
3. Changing dressings of injured patients
4. Readying patients for various tests
5. Taking X-rays of patients
6. Assisting in the laboratory. You may also be asked to carry out simple tests yourself
7. Cleaning the examination room and ensuring it is ready for use
8. Helping the doctor (e.g. passing tools or instruments) while an examination is going on
9. Recording signs and symptoms that are essential for proper treatment

and lastly, performing ECGs and phlebotomy.

Here is what ECG and phlebotomy means:

ECG: Short for electrocardiography – a test that involves the usage of electrodes to detect what problems are behind abnormal rhythms of a human heart or animal heart. It measures how regularly and how fast the heart beats, but most importantly, it records electrical activity.

Phlebotomy: This is a process that constitutes cutting or opening a vein in order to extract blood from it or for other reasons.

Administrative Medical Assistant Job Description

Here it is:

1. Welcoming visitors
2. Managing appointments with patients
3. Organising and managing incoming email messages
4. Keeping medical records, filing them, and updating them
5. Filling and submitting forms for insurance, etc.
6. Purchasing medical equipment and supplies (plus storing them)
7. Billing tasks

Additional Information About The Job Duties

Medical assistants may also be required to record information about the weight and height of patients, interview and administer drugs to them, make them ready for examinations, explain or clarify instructions, advice, and recommendations regarding their drugs and the treatment process so they can fully apprehend it, and collect things like their tissue and blood for testing in the laboratory.

A medical assistant is required in many fields, so make sure you acquire some expertise in one field so you can increase your competence and enhance your credibility. That field could be dermatology, gynaecology, cardiology, etc. and it is a no-brainer that those fields will impose upon you specific responsibilities unseen in other fields.

You’ve made a wise choice by opting to become a medical assistant. Whether you are passionate about assisting doctors or you love this job for other reasons, you’ll find it quite interesting, educating, and completely collaborative.

As a medical assistant, you are entering a realm of employment where caution, attention to detail, and diligence must be exhibited markedly and suitably. So before you proceed, make certain you are following your heart and doing what you want. Adherence to compulsion may not be ideal for you.

By all means get certified. I’ll be adding information about medical assistant training in the future, so be sure to check back. I hope you found this article informative and helpful.