5 Important Clinical Medical Assistant Duties You Should Master

December 4, 2021
Kyle Riggs

Have you been wondering, “What are the duties of a clinical medical assistant?” Do you see yourself becoming a vital member of a healthcare team? If you answered, “Yes!”, there are five clinical medical assistant duties you should master before starting your medical career.

Medical assistants help provide life-giving care by assisting physicians with important medical assistant duties in clinics. Through a clinical medical assistant program, you could learn foundational clinical medical assistant duties and understand the clinical medical assistant job description. Are you ready to pursue this exciting career? Continue reading to learn what are three clinical duties performed by a medical assistant and the top five you should know before entering the field.

Take the first step in your career journey today!

1. Patient Care

Have you ever left somewhere thinking, “Man, that was terrible customer service? They didn’t help me at all. I will never go back there again.”? In the medical field, patient care could be considered the equivalent of customer service. When you enter one of your local businesses, you expect to be treated well and greeted with a smile. Like customer service, excellent patient care occurs in a medical office, where a patient’s concerns and needs are resolved professionally and with empathy. Giving intentional patient care could look like providing therapeutic communication, choosing empathy towards a difficult patient, or simply doing your clinical medical assistant duties well. Providing quality patient care may require medical assistants to care for their patients and remember their career is in service to others.

2. Vital Signs

What is one of the first things they make you do when you enter the doctor’s office? They take your vital signs! Vital signs provide medical professionals with important data regarding a patient’s health and overall well-being¹. Physicians use vital signs to detect medical problems or help diagnose disease¹. Because of its overall importance, taking vital signs is one of the most fundamental and important clinical medical assistant duties².

Common vital signs you should learn could include: how to take blood pressure, pulse rate, body temperature, and respiration rate¹. Aspiring medical assistants could learn how to take vital signs in a clinical medical assistant program and through hands-on learning in a medical office lab. By learning how to take vital signs could prepare for future clinical medical assistant duties and even help save someone’s life.

3. Drawing Blood

Does the sight of blood offend you? If you answered “No!”, then you should have no issue with number three on our list of the top five clinical medical assistant duties. Like vital signs and patient care, drawing blood is a significant part of the clinical medical assistant job description. Clinical medical assistants are often responsible for drawing blood and preparing blood samples for lab tests². Blood tests are ordered by physicians to detect diseases such as diabetes, cancer, or simply check organ functions³.

Some patients may feel uneasy at the sight of blood or needles, and this is where medical assistants shine. By enrolling in a clinical medical assistant program you could master the basics of drawing blood and learn how to soothe nervous patients all while providing excellent care.

4. Assisting Physicians

Yes, this may seem like common knowledge, but assisting physicians is a critical part of clinical medical assistant duties. By assisting physicians, clinical medical assistants help patients receive quality care and may also help improve medical office efficiency. Assisting physicians could look like obtaining a medical history from the patient, drawing blood, preparing examination rooms, taking vital signs, and even administering injections².

If you enjoy team dynamics and want to play an important role in a medical office, assisting physicians and other staff with these tasks could be perfect for you. Many clinical medical assistant programs offer a hands-on externship portion, where you could hone these interpersonal skills and become a great team player.

5. Data Entry and Medical Terminology

A big part of clinical medical assistant duties also involves data entry². Medical assistants are responsible for documenting patient medical history and personal information, either on paper or electronically². Entering data correctly is crucial and often requires confidentiality and an understanding of medical terminology. Physicians and insurance companies depend on correct medical records for billing purposes and could use medical terminology to communicate with medical staff².

Mastering medical terminology and being detail-oriented could help you excel at clinical medical assistant duties4. If you don’t know common medical terminology, clinical medical assistant programs provide classes to master this indispensable skill and gain other tools you could need for the medical field.

Learn Clinical Medical Assistant Duties at Blue Cliff College

At Blue Cliff College, we know that knowledge is power! Through industry-current training courses, we help provide students with the tools they need to excel at everyday clinical medical assistant duties. Students who want to specialize in certain aspects of the medical field could graduate knowing how to answer questions like, “What are a medical assistant’s duties in a cardiology clinic?” or, “What determines the duties of clinical medical assistants in podiatry?”

Blue Cliff College students are given first-hand learning opportunities to help prepare them for the real world of the medical field. After successfully completing the Blue Cliff College Clinical Medical Assistant program, students could pursue entry-level employment in a medical office and begin completing clinical medical assistant duties. So what are you waiting for? Contact Blue Cliff College today and begin mastering these top five clinical medical assistant duties!

Learn more about the Clinical Medical Assistant Program at Blue Cliff College

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