Medical specialists work around the clock to deliver healthcare and emergency
response. In order for these medical professionals to be able to spend more time
attending to their patients, certified support specialists called medical office assistants
make sure to get administrative work out of the way.
This is why the demand for medical office assistants is skyrocketing. The U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics’ projections for medical office assistants outline that demand will
increase by 8% come 2031. And while most medical office assistants take on work
under a physician or a doctor, their job prospects extend to working for independent
practice nurse practitioners (NP) as well. After all, Medical Economics explains that
NPs are also healthcare professionals who are helping address the physician shortage.
Should you want to work for an NP, it’s best to know which qualities they are looking
for. Below are a few.
Flexibility
NPs working in telehealth specifically look for medical office assistants that can work
remotely. This is because NPs are already busy working to address the physician
shortage, and need assistants to cover other areas of medical work. Full practice
authority states like Arizona even allow remote nurse practitioners to provide
prescriptions, diagnosis and treatments without needing a go-signal from the
physician. This means that NPs can easily cater to patients who need healthcare access
the most including those in states with healthcare professional shortages like
Minnesota, where physicians are currently conducting their own resignation.
These NPs can also practice in other states if they have a multi-state Registered Nurse
license. They also must have accomplished at least 960 hours of advanced nursing
practice in the five years before obtaining a license. With such licensing requirements
and duties, NPs highly seek medical office assistants who are flexible. To be more flexible, pitch to your NP to hold quick briefings before each workday starts so that
everyone knows how to adjust their workflow accordingly.
Communication
NPs will expect you to handle all sorts of administrative communications--
coordinating schedules, taking phone calls, and ushering patients. You must know
how to communicate across all media and wi th different kinds of people. Our course
“Online Medical Office Assistant Training” teaches you how to do just that with
hands-on activities like interacting with patients as you prepare them for medical
examinations.
Impartial
Medical office assistants have tons of tasks that require interaction with patients. Such
is why they need to be able to give equal treatment to anyone who is in their
workplace’s care, regardless of their social background. To practice this, determine
the patterns of thought that lead to judgment–do you have certain biases towards a
particular group of people?
Organization
As medical office assistants handle tons of documents and materials in a work day,
it’s only right that you have strong organizational skills. Organized medical office
assistants should be able to establish or follow a filing system that ensures documents
are never misplaced, and that you can easily find them should the NP ask for them.
Being organized also minimizes the tendency to commit errors when it comes to bills,
patient profiles, and prescriptions.
Fortunately, organizational skills are something you can easily learn by practicing
with an organized system in your personal space and time with respect to your
schoolwork.
Medical work goes beyond patient care and emergency response. As medical office
assistants have to work tirelessly to support health professionals–and, in the long run,
deliver quality service to patients–it is imperative that these support providers have
such qualities.