How to Become a Medical Assistant in North Dakota

Medical assisting offers a stable and fulfilling job, but it is not a career for everyone.

Even though it is a career to be proud of it demands a lot of refraining and renunciations as well as flexibility, a desire to help other people, and a love of continuous learning and advancing.

Many people cannot even imagine working every day with doctors and patients.

Nevertheless, if you think that you enjoy working with and helping others and have the compassion and commitment to a medical career, you should try your luck and become a medical assistant.

Job Description

Medical assistants can work in various places, such as ambulatory clinics, physician offices, and hospitals.

Depending on the clinic, their responsibilities might include both clinical and administrative obligations.

So, employers look for specific employment requirements to be sure that future employee can perform the job of a medical assistant competently and capably.

They are the people who help the office functioning smoothly and undisturbed and are allowed to collect data to be used in diagnosis, offer health education to the patients and assist in handling equipment.

The more educated and certified medical assistants are also allowed to administer medications, perform radiography and diagnose and plan patients care.

Becoming a Medical Assistant in North Dakota

When it comes to necessary education, North Dakota has numerous medical assistant programs that cover topics of health sciences, patient care, medical law, laboratory procedures and pharmacology and they are designed to prepare students for the successful performance of all the medical duties that await for them once hired.

Students can choose between shorter kind of education so that they can quickly start working or the longer one that offers them more detailed knowledge and experience, but is more time-consuming.

However, the benefits of both kinds of education are numerous, starting from easier employment and better salaries to higher self-esteem and success in this field.

The medical clinic or office is also a business, so medical assistants need to be multi-skilled health professionals who are performing clerical duties either so this education programs deal with the administrative side of education such as computer and software usage, insurance and billing.

Requirements

As employers become stricter about education, experience, and national certification when employing medical assistants, numerous people decide to enroll in a certificate or associate degree program.

The accredited associations who offer these kinds of programs are:

• Certified Medical Assistant (CMA) – sponsored by the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA)
• Registered Medical Assistant (RMA) – sponsored by American Medical Technologists (AMT)
• National Certified Medical Assistant (NCMA) – sponsored by the National Center for Competency Testing (NCCT)
• Certified Clinical Medical Assistant (CCMA) – sponsored by the National Healthcareer Association (NHA)

Medical assistants in North Dakota who have finished any of these programs are required to register as Technician – Medical Assistants with the North Dakota Board of Nursing.

They will also need to maintain their credential after gaining it and each certificate has its requirements:

• CMA – every five years you need to retake the CMA Exam or earn 60 re-certification points.
• RMA – have an annual membership with RMT and earn 30 Certification Continuing Program(CCP) points every three years
• NCMA – finish a course of Continuing Education (CE) approved by the NCCT
• CCMA – earn at least 10 Continuing Education(CE) credits every two years.

Getting a Job

It is true that medical assistants with certification in the profession improve their chances of getting the job, and can even negotiate the salary.

Considering the fact that medical assisting career is definitely one which demands a lot of renunciations during the process of education, but at the same time, is growing very fast thus affecting the job growth, students who has achieved certification look for a job in physician’s offices or in medical and surgical hospitals that suit them best and which offer the best conditions.

The job opportunities for medical assistants are vast and the job can be found in hospitals, trauma centers, nursing homes, doctors’ offices, and private clinics.

Salary

North Dakota can be ranked among those states where the medical assistant profession is not paid too well.

However, this vocation is still among the top fastest-growing occupations here as well.

As the job offers rise, the salary of medical assistants can become even more satisfying.

When it comes to the average salaries of medical assistants in North Dakota, current statistics show that it approximately ranges from $ 30 185 to $ 32 258.

The table below shows average salaries for medical assistants in major cities of North Dakota, presenting the difference from one place to another:

Regional Salary in North Dakota

Duties

The importance and the amount of the medical assistants’ daily activities and responsibilities are determined by the size, location, and practice specialty.

Their characteristics also play a very important role in performing effectively daily obligations.

Empathy towards the feelings and distress of the patients, communication skills while interacting with doctors, nurses, patients and pharmacists, and technical skills when updating medical data and using machines are just some of the qualities that characterize an ideal medical assistant.

Medical assistants are required to handle both administrative and clinical duties.

The administrative duties include:

• Answering patients’ questions over the telephone and at the facility
• Arranging appointments and lab services, as well as interacting with pharmaceutical companies
• Keep and update patient medical records
• Greeting patients and instruct them when leaving the clinic about the usage of the prescribed medicine and further examinations

On the other hand, their clinical duties include:

• Assisting doctors and other medical staff
• Helping patients recover after the intervention
• Drawing blood and taking samples to the lab
• Preparing patients and equipment for surgeries
• Taking patient vital signs, among many others.

Summary

Now, if you are still trying to decide which career is right for you and you are trying to find a career that offer you job opportunities and a salary high enough for the decent living  in the future, and above all you possess compassion and empathy towards people in need, then you should definitely consider becoming a medical assistant.

Medical Assisting by City

Medical Assisting by State