What is your true calling? Where do you see yourself in the future? To what level will you take your career next? Is the medical assisting career a good match for you? Should you become certified as a medical assistant?

If you are an efficient multitasker who works well with people from all walks of life, have organizational skills within a fast-paced environment, and can see yourself collecting specimens, and interacting with patients as their first point of contact without crumbling under stress, then you would probably enjoy working in an ambulatory medical office, or clinic as a certified medical assistant. Before we continue to tell you what this entails, let us point out, for clarification, that the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) has reserved all rights to the term Certified Medical Assistant® (CMA), and makes a distinction between the term spelled with upper case letters vs. lower case, as in certified medical assistant*.

There currently is a high demand for certified medical assistants and different recognized certifications are offered by accredited vocational training institutions and professional membership organizations everywhere. One of the first organization that promoted certification for medical assistants in the USA was the American Association of Medical Assistants with their headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Others soon followed, such as the American Medical Technologists (AMT), the National Healthcareer Association (NHA), and numerous others who offer competency based medical assistant certification exams to those who graduated from one of their approved vocational training institution or, alternatively, based on the amount of direct medical assisting job experience, or a specific specialty discipline.

Formal vocational training requires from approximately one to two years from start to finish, depending on the program. As an alternative, there also are highly reputable, distance education programs for aspiring medical assistants. As long as these programs and courses are accredited by ABHES and/or CAAHEP, or the US Department of Education, these too, can lead to desired diplomas and certifications upon one can build a solid career. Some of the online medical assistant training programs allow you to take a medical assistant certification - just make SURE you ask about this options and which credentials you will qualify for before hand! As long as you do your research and ask the admissions office, faculty and students enrolled at the school of your choice these important questions before you sign up, then you should not regret your choice of going with an online program that meets your specific needs and future employer's expectations.

1. Medical Assistant Students Q & A
2. Medical Assistant Schools
3. Medical Assistant Certifications
4. Medical Assisting Academic Degrees
5. Medical Assistant Specialties
6. Certified Medical Assistant Employment
7. Medical Assistant Benefits and Pay

Medical assistants often land better paying positions by getting certified and obtaining medical and healthcare special focus certificates, or limited licenses that makes them eligible to work in a specific medical specialty practice, biomedical research facility, or clinical laboratory. Community colleges and vocational training institutions are heeding this call by offering programs that focus closely on specialty skills such as massage therapy, holistic health care, fitness, rehabilitation, phlebotomy, EKG/ECG, radiography (limited x-ray), sonography, ultrasound and chiropractic technician courses. Others offer Associates in Science degrees for those who intend to continue their studies beyond a medical assisting diploma and eventually go into nursing and various other highly specialized technical fields and medical sciences.

• Health Information Technology
• Radiologic Technology
• Sonography and Ultrasound
• Surgical Technology
• Laboratory sciences
• Medical Office Administration and Management,
• Medical records, Health Information Management
• Pharmaceutical sciences

Those interested in environmental sciences, chemistry and biology can enroll into Arts and Science Degree programs offered through state and community colleges, as well as universities; these programs lead to a major in environmental biology and forestry, or concentrations in such areas as botany, entomology, fish and wildlife biology, forest pathology, plant physiology, zoology, environmental chemistry, or veterinary degrees for animal lovers, which all are careers of the future with excellent occupational future outlook.

The possibilities are endless.

*AAMA and current Certified Medical Assistants (CMAs) retain the exclusive right to use the phrase Certified Medical Assistant to indicate that medical assisting services will be performed by a person whose services are competent in the medical assistant field, such individuals having graduated from a medical assisting program accredited by either the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), or the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES), and having passed the AAMA CMA Certification Examination given by the AAMA Certifying Board.