St. Augustine School of Medical Assistants
Medical assisting is one of the fastest growing health care jobs.As the American and global population of western countriescontinues to age, this high growth of many health care jobs isexpected to continue through at least the next decade. Accordingto the United States Department of Labor, “Employment isprojected to grow much faster than average, ranking medicalassistants among the fastest growing occupations over the 2006-16decade. Job opportunities should be excellent, particularly forthose with formal training.” Most medical assistants and healthcare office workers receive their training informally at medicaloffices or often though a more traditional program offered at alocal vocation school, community college or though onlinedistance education classes.Medical assistants usually work in an office setting. Work hoursare usually daylight, Monday through Friday, 40-hour work weeksand often some weekend hours are required. Overtime is oftenavailable and sometimes mandatory. Positions at insurancehospital or health care clinics are more likely to have a fewovernight or late hour shifts available.Many of the fastest growing health care jobs such as medicalassistant careers are concentrated in the health services fieldand 19% of all health care job growth from 2004 - 2014 will be inhealth services. Factors contributing to continued growth in thisindustry include the aging population, which will continue torequire more services, and the increased use of innovativemedical technology for intensive diagnosis and treatment. Theeffect of the increasing proportion of the elderly is alreadybeing felt.Medical assistant many now take advantage of newer technology andstudy the basics online, often at a very affordable fee and atconvenient time schedules. Distance education medical assistantcourses such as the medical assistant program atwww.medassistant.org which is provided by St. Augustine School ofMedical Assistants provide a new innovative approach to thetraining of medical assistants and health care office employees.Virtual education is now part of the planning agenda of mostorganizations concerned with education and training. The qualityof distance learning has greatly improved in the past few years,as both students and educators have become more comfortable withthe technology, and as stories of best practices have been sharedand duplicated. Recent research has shown that the mostsignificant factor helping students to succeed in web-basedclasses has been their ability to manage time.There are hundreds, if not thousands of different types ofmedical jobs. Healthcare is the largest industry, showing thehighest amount of growth of any other field, according to theBureau of Labor Statistics. Employing 14 million people in 2006,the healthcare industry is projected to add about three millionmore jobs by 2016, according to the BLS. Medical assistant http://www.medassistant.org jobs and other allied healthprofessional will continue to make up a large portion ofemployment opportunities in the health care job market, makingmedical assisting a rapidly growing career with much opportunityover the foreseeable future. As a whole, medical support rolesand administrative roles make up a whopping 18% of all jobs inthe healthcare industry, which is why these jobs are amongst thetop medical jobs.Medical assistants may advance to other occupations throughexperience or additional training. For example, some may go on toteach medical assisting, and others pursue additional educationto become nurses or other health care workers. Administrativemedical assistants may advance to office manager, or qualify fora variety of administrative support occupations. Helping to drivethis job growth is the increasing number of group practices,clinics, and other health care facilities that require a highproportion of support personnel, particularly medical assistantswho can handle both administrative and clinical duties. Inaddition, medical assistants work primarily in outpatientsettings, a rapidly growing sector of the health care industry.
