medical coding training at home.
Medical assisting as a vocation came into its own in the early 1980's when physicians began looking for a way to streamline their budgets. A position once reserved for registered or licensed practical nurses (R.N. or L.P.N.), medical assistant jobs rarely call for skills that necessitated a nurses' training. In an age of specialization, medical assisting was created to fulfill the special needs that physicians have in their offices such as taking a patient's history, assessing and recording vital signs, performing EKG and blood tests and other specialized skills.
Front Office
The beauty of medical assistant jobs is that there is diversity in the position, insuring that medical assistants who are cross-trained will never get bored and will always be in demand. Those who are averse to body fluids or are not comfortable with direct patient interaction may be more suited to taking a front office position. These jobs entail scheduling, coding and billing. Coding is a precise skill whereby the medical assistant learns the diagnostic codes of all of the diseases and disorders and is able to use those codes in billing and record keeping. Coders are in high demand and it is just one of the skills learned in a medical assisting course.
Back Office
Those who prefer to be involved in nursing are drawn to these kind of jobs because there are plenty of crossover skills in the position. Medical assistants are trained to draw blood, perform electrocardiograms (EKG), and take a blood pressure, pulse and respiration reading, collectively known as "vitals". They may also interview a patient for past history and present complaint, administer medication and vaccinations, perform ear lavage and prepare cultures and specimens.
Medical Terminology
Jobs may also include transcribing what the doctor records on a hand held recorder. Physicians typically record their notes on a small cassette tape that is then handed over to the medical assistant for transcription. They will use a machine to listen to the recordings and transcribe them into the patient's record. This undertaking requires the use of medical terminology and knowledge of pharmacology. This could also be the sole job of someone in this trade, who does this full time in the office or at home as an independent contractor. With nothing more than a transcriber and a computer, a person trained in medical assistance can start his or her own business as a medical transcriber and work from home, quite a benefit when jobs are hard to find.
Jobs
Medical assistants can also use their training to cross over to other fields. Since veterinary technician training courses are tough to find, many veterinarians will hire a medical assistant because they recognize the training is virtually the same with a few minor exceptions. The anatomy and physiology, diseases and disorders and medical terminology is all the same. In some cases, even the pharmacology is the same. Medical assistant jobs are also available in assisted-living facilities, nursing homes, hospitals, cruise ships and vocational schools, making it one of the careers that will always survive in a bad economy.
medical coding training at home.