What to Expect After Completing a CMA Program
Posted On December 30,2024
If you are looking for an in-demand career with plenty of variety in duties and workplaces, room for advancement, and the chance to make a difference in the lives of your patients, medical assisting can be the perfect choice. You can complete a medical assisting program in a few months while balancing your other responsibilities. If you choose an accredited program, you will finish as a CMA (Certified Medical Assistant) with plenty of opportunities. After completing a CMA program, knowing what to expect in your first few months can lead you to success.
Do I Need to be Certified Before I Start Working?
Getting certified as a medical assistant isn’t required to begin working. A licensed medical assistant may not have gone through the certification requirements but is licensed to work as a medical assistant in a particular state. Technically, certification is optional. However, that doesn’t mean certification is unnecessary. Not only will many facilities make it a requirement when applying for positions, but Certified Medical Assistants (CMAs) will have a definite advantage in the job market over medical assistants who have completed their training without finishing certification requirements. Certification programs for medical assistants are designed to meet industry standards, including practical skills. Before you begin looking for work, certification demonstrates to prospective employers that you are committed to the field and gives them a quantifiable way to verify your knowledge, skills, and qualifications. Certified medical assistants will have an easier time finding a job and typically qualify for a higher starting salary than medical assistants without certification.
Where Can I Work as a CMA?
CMAs are needed everywhere in the healthcare field. As a CMA, you can find work in a hospital, an urgent care clinic, family practice or general practice offices, specialty offices, nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and even public health locations. You can find work in health insurance offices if you are more interested in the administrative side. If you are more interested in clinical roles, you can continue your education to help you specialize and grow until you can even work in surgical settings. Because the field is so vast, as you are considering where you want to begin for your first job, think about starting in a setting where you will have exposure to many different tasks, like a large clinic or a hospital setting. As you spend time on the job, you will be drawn toward where you want to focus your advancement opportunities.
Tips for Landing Your First Job
Landing your first job can be overwhelming even when you’ve gone through a strong program and obtained your certification. Choosing an accredited training program offers certification and job placement assistance is one of the best ways to make sure you start your career right. Using the connections you made during your training to start networking can help you explore potential job opportunities. Many new medical assistants get their first positions by getting a reference from a contact during training. In addition, when you are ready to begin searching for a job, these steps can help.
- Set Up a Professional Email Account to Use for Job Search-Related Messages
The best way to avoid missing messages is to keep work-related communication distinct from personal communication. Job boards like Indeed can be set up to send alerts when new jobs are posted.
- Polish Your Resume
Writing your first resume for medical assisting roles when you don’t have any professional experience can feel daunting, but medical facilities understand that every career has a beginning stage. Use the clinical experience from your training and the clerical or soft skills you can highlight from previous jobs to build a resume showing you are ready for your new role. Make sure to highlight everything from your clinical hours, primarily work you did directly with patients.
- Prepare for an Interview
Once you’ve got an interview, take some time to prepare. Research the facility, what kind of work they do, and the job description. Memorizing answers can make you sound stiff and formal, but looking at how your experience and skills make you a good fit for the facility and preparing some talking points can help you respond to questions smoothly. Make sure you think of a few questions to ask the interviewer after your meeting.
What to Expect Working as a CMA
Once you’ve landed your first job, your working experience will differ based on what kind of medical facility you are working at. Still, you can expect to perform many different administrative and clinical tasks. In your first role, your tasks will likely start on a more fundamental level: taking vital signs, preparing patients for exams, taking medical histories, updating records, scheduling appointments, and assisting the medical staff. Some roles will be more administrative work, while others may skew more toward clinical work, and different facilities will expect different tasks from their medical assistants. No matter where you wind up, however, you can expect a good deal of patient interaction and a busy schedule as you help the day run smoothly. As you spend more time in your role, you will be given additional duties and responsibilities, and as you learn how you work best, you can set your sights on where you’d like to advance in your career.
Working as a CMA is a rewarding career where you can feel confident in your job security and advancement opportunities. In less than a year, you can move from the classroom to the workplace and start gaining experience while making a difference in the lives of your patients. Contact Athena Career Academy today to learn more about their CMA program and take the first step toward your new career.