Question

Since medical assistants are often the patient first contact with a health care facility and the provider, what attributes, responsibilities and skills must medical assistants possess? What procedures can and cannot be delegated to the medical assistant to stay within the scope of practice?

Answer 1

A Medical assistant comes in contact with different types of patients. For providing quality work and dealing with them patiently, the medical assistant should possess the following skills and attributes towards his/her profession. These are as follows:

• Analytical skills- It includes the ability to collect, gather, visualize, and analyze information in detail and looking at every possible angle for a given situation.
• Detail-oriented -You need to be precise in each task while performing on the patients.
• Interpersonal skills-You must be good in communication and listening skills.
• Technical skills -You need to master healthcare technologies to be a successful medical assistant. Many tests and basic handling of instruments are done by a medical assistant. You need to keep yourself updated with the latest technologies and even maintaining interest while performing the same.
• Teamwork- Your nature should be friendly, empathic, and adaptable in every type of environment for effective collaboration with your team.
• Manual Dexterity – The ability to hold instruments firmly with coordinated hand and finger movements to perform patient treatment and minor surgeries.
• Computer skills -You should have at least basic computer knowledge operating skills so that you can feed the patient's info into computers.
• Self-control skills: You must have the ability to control your emotions and behavior in a different scenario.
• Self-Esteem is related to what we are able to do. This is shaped by our thoughts and perspectives.
• Multitasking: This is a very important skill as the medical assistant continuously get exposed to a different emergency situation. You should be able to manage different work and patients simultaneously.
• You must be able to prioritize the patient's problems and their work. The medical assistant should be quick in decision making whenever needed.

What procedures can and cannot be delegated to the medical assistant to stay within the scope of practice?

Responsibilities and duties performed by the medical assistant within the scope of practice:

1. A MA performs the full check of the patient along with patient personal details, checking for vital signs, performing a physical examination, and obtaining the patient’s medical history.
2. Tests are performed by a medical assistant whenever suggested by the doctor. It includes giving instructions to the patient before performing the test, collection of samples, and mailing it to the lab with a proper protocol.
3. It is the duty of a medical assistant to prepare the patient for performing procedures advised by the doctor. Preparing the patient may include an explanation in detail about the procedure and how it will be performed. These also include the shaving of the necessary parts of the body.
4. A MA is responsible for maintaining the patient's files records and updating it with new information whenever the patient visits. He/she schedules patients for appointments and deletes cancellations from the calendar.

• Administering oral and inject-able medications, changing dressings, cleaning, and maintenance of instruments and medical equipment, performing billing tasks, educating the patient as directed by the doctor, performing specialized testing such as EKGs, vision screening and hearing tests are other duties of the medical assistant.

Duties that cannot be performed by the medical assistant:

• The medical assistants are not legally authorized to diagnose symptoms and conditions.
• Neither they can treat the patient independently nor can prescribed medications. They cannot interpret diagnostic test results.
• A medical assistant cannot perform clinical invasive tests that involve the penetration of human tissues like an arterial puncture, aspiration methods, endoscopy, colonoscopy, thoracotomy, and spinal tap.

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