A medical assistant works in a hospital, clinic or another healthcare institution where physicians are employed, and performs basic assisting duties to the physicians. Some medical assistants are hired to work on specific elements of the physician’s surrounding (such as taking care of laboratory tests or handling the front desk), while in some other cases the assistant functions as a general helper to the physician and provides them with whatever extra services they may need to perform their job right. An assistant would often be asked to prepare a patient for the doctor’s treatment.
Becoming a medical assistant only takes a high school degree in most cases. It’s not an actual physician job, so it doesn’t require any medical education in particular, though having some working experience in a hospital or another healthcare institution can certainly be of benefit to candidates. An ability to work quickly and respond to the physician’s requests as fast as possible is crucial, and in some cases it can even be the primary factor used to judge a potential assistant’s value.
Medical assistants earn moderately well, with an annual salary of between $31,000 – $44,000 being the most common. One of the peculiar things about the job of a medical assistant is that it offers a lot of room for progressing, and one can find him/herself with quite a well-paying job in a hospital or clinic in later stages of their lives if they perform the job of a medical assistant well enough.