Most people tend to have a narrow view of the Medical Assisting occupation. Saying and thinking things like,
Medical assistants just work in doctor’s offices
Oftentimes, people do not realize that medical assistants are trained in many areas such as: medicine (first and foremost), caring for patients, health insurance, lab procedures, book and record keeping, and more. There are many types of medical assistant training programs to choose from.
This extensive and broad educational training provides the opportunity for Medical Assistants to work in many different healthcare capacities.
Today we are sharing some exciting and alternative medical assistant career paths. So, if you thought MAs only worked in doctor’s offices, then get ready to learn a few more places you didn’t know about!
Certified Medical Assistant Career Paths
- Specialty offices (e.g. Podiatry, Chiropractic, Opthalmology)
- Hospitals – in a variety of capacities
- Outpatient surgical centers
- Emergency service organizations
- Urgent care centers
- Retirement and Nursing homes
- Medical supplies organizations
- Home health companies
- Insurance carriers
- Rehab and Therapy clinics
- Pharmaceutical businesses
- U.S. Army
- U.S. Navy
- U.S. Air Force
- U.S. Coast Guard
Why You Should Find a Niche to Advance Your Career
There are a few reasons that finding a niche will help to advance your medical assistant career path.
By specializing, you can become more competitive in a specific area. This means that you could potentially make more money or have more negotiating power for other benefits.
By specializing, you could potentially start your own business if you can identify or create an opportunity within a niche that is under served.
You will have more job security by specializing, in most cases. Once you have a certain level of experience as an MA you will always be qualified for more general medical assisting positions.
So, by specializing you are broadening your qualifications to a specific niche while maintaining your qualifications as a general MA. Now you qualify for more jobs, increasing your job security.
Brainstorming Medical Assistant Career Paths
Now you know, there are many more places within the medical community that you can find jobs and carve out an alternative medical assistant career path. So, get creative and start thinking of some possible medical assistant career paths you may be interested in.
Try thinking of your skills and how they could apply to various medical organizations. Medical assistants have administrative and clinical skills and could use both or choose to focus on one.
Additionally, medical assistants can find a niche medical specialty, such as podiatry or ophthalmology, and focus their careers in one niche.
That being said, the U.S. Department of Labor states that roughly 60 percent of medical assistants work in doctor’s offices. So, that means that the remaining 40% are finding alternative medical offices to work in.
We shared a long list of 20 more places that medical assistants can work if you would like to find more opportunities.
Are you a working in a doctor’s office or some other medical assistant career path? Let us know in the comments below! 🙂
