Medical Assistants –5 Skills You’ll Need

If you care about people and have a strong desire to help them, you may already have some of the skills you’ll need to become a Medical Assistant.  A  medical assistant program may be the perfect match for the person you are and the job you could find in in today’s modern healthcare office.

1) Honesty & Integrity

Patient privacy will be entrusted to you as a Medical Assistant and you must guard that responsibility with the utmost care. Not only will you be privy to sensitive medical information, but you will also learn much about the personal lives of your patients. Honesty and integrity are also vital in your interactions with doctors and staff. The team approach used in most healthcare settings today demands that each member honestly and openly accept responsibility for his or her role within the organization. 

2) Interpersonal Skills

You’ve got to be a people person. As a Medical Assistant, you’ll spend most of your day interacting with people from all walks of life. You’ll need to be pleasant and helpful to doctors, nurses, medical staff and patients –patients who may be nervous about a procedure, a diagnosis or their overall health. Your ability to offer them reassuring words and a warm smile can be the difference between a good experience and a horrible one.

3) Communication Skills

As a Medical Assistant, you’ll often need to translate complicated medical terminology into a language that your patients can understand. Serving as liaison from patient to doctor, you may be taking patient history one moment and then instructing patients on post-procedure care the next. Your ability to effectively communicate can save your patients unnecessary stress, ensure that healthcare workers in your office do their best job, and increase the level of professionalism with which  your entire facility is run.

4) Fine Attention to Detail

Whether you’re performing lab procedures, doing coding and billing, or intefacing directly with patients, your fine attention to detail is an asset the healthcare field requires. Mistakes in the medical field can cost more than just time and money; they can adversely affect patient care.

5) Ability to Multi-task

If you’re thinking that working in the healthcare field as a Medical Assistant sounds like you’ll be busy doing a lot of different tasks, you’re right. The ability to quickly switch gears and adapt to changing situations is an important skill. As a Medical Assistant in an exciting medical setting, you’ll often be called upon to keep many balls in the air, all the while remaining pleasant and professional.  

At Career Quest Learning Centers, you can train to be a Medical Assistant in as little as 7 months. Call one of our three campuses or contact us here for more information. Your new career could be waiting behind a Michigan door at Lansing, Jackson or Kalamazoo.

Administrative Assistants –More Important than the boss?

While you may have always suspected it, now there’s mounting evidence that Administrative Assistants serve roles in corporate America that are considered even more important than the jobs that their bosses do. According to a social media survey conducted by office giant Staples, almost two-thirds of those participating said office administrative assistants are more relevant than the boss when it comes to holding the office together. 

Good Administrative Assistants do perform a host of above-and-beyond tasks for their bosses and their companies. Often not receiving the recognition they deserve, Administrative Assistants screen calls and emails, organize meetings, manage schedules, handle travel arrangements and track expenses. In smaller companies, they sometimes become ipso facto Human Resource managers. And in big and small arenas, they serve as gatekeeper to the boss, discerning just who gets in and who does not.

In “The Case for Executive Assistants” article for the Harvard Business Review, executive assistant recruiter Melba Duncan points out that good assistants save their bosses time and their companies money. In addition to the roles which are most commonly associated with them, Executive Assistants can be crucial onboarding resources, helping new managers get up-to-speed with company culture, according to Duncan. “In this way, knowledgeable assistants are more than a productivity asset: They’re reverse mentors, using their experience to teach new executives how people are expected to behave at that level in the organization,” said Duncan.

And for a few highly skilled assistants, the roles they initially play within an organization serve as stepping stones to advancement. Because the tasks Administrative Assistants often perform involve direct client communication, project research and vendor negotiations, Assistants are often strategically positioned to understand the full scope of what a company does and where it may be going –and to follow their company’s upward trajectory.

The value of and potential for today’s Administrative Assistants can’t be overstated. They are vital members of any organization. At Career Quest Learning Centers, students in the Administrative Office Professional Program are trained to work in today’s modern office setting. The program offers a wide array of office, communication and computer instruction to help students prepare for entry-level through advanced-level employment.