Medical Assistant Schools And Jobs

Medical Assistants

Medical assistants provide administrative support to medical and healthcare offices. In small office environments, a medical assistant takes on a wide range of roles such as handling phone calls, billing issues, appointment scheduling and bookkeeping. In some states, medical assistants may also perform certain light clinical tasks such as drawing blood, taking vital signs and changing bandages. In larger offices, medical assistants may specialize in one or two particular functions.

Because most medical assistants work in a physician's office environment, working hours are usually within the bounds of the normal work week. There are often opportunities for medical assistants to work part-time.

Medical Assistant Training

While there are some medical assistants who learn their trade on the job, having a formal education is highly desirable and becoming more common. There are a large number of career schools and community colleges that offer accredited medical assisting training programs. Most programs are either one-year (certificate or diploma) or two-year (associate's degree).

The outlook for medical assisting jobs looks bright. The U.S. government expects medical assisting to be one of the fastest growing fields over the next several years.

Schools for Medical Assistants are listed in the column to the left.

The Top Cities tab shows employment statistics for Medical Assistants by major metro area.

The Find Schools tab lets you search for schools by field of study, degree level, and location.