Clinical Medical Assistant Job Description

Health-care is a field that consists of a wide variety of jobs that range from technical, non-technical, to administrative. There are some jobs without which medical professionals like doctors and nurses would find it very difficult to carry out their daily tasks. One of such jobs is that of a clinical medical assistant. In general, these are health-care experts who perform tasks related to basic patient care, and execute other complicated medical work under the supervision of doctors or nurses.

Clinical Medical Assistants

As the name suggests, a clinical medical assistant is a person who is handed over the task of basic patient care, which will aid superiors like nurses and physicians to move ahead in medical procedures. Note that this consists of jobs that are totally related to medical care, and not administration of the medical setting. Normally, administration work such as handling reception, medical records, and patient appointments is carried out by administrative medical assistants.

Job Description
The first duty is to ask for the medical history and records from patients to be treated and examined. He has to discuss with the patient regarding the illness, and record vital signs. He also has to arrange patients for clinical examinations, after consulting with appropriate medical personnel. Usually, they also take blood and urine samples for testing and finding out the medical condition of patients. They dispose off used material and supplies and replace them with new ones.

Sterilizing medical instruments is also a very crucial task in their responsibilities. Tasks carried out under supervision of seniors include informing patients regarding medicines and a healthy diet, administrating medicines, preparing prescriptions, performing body scans, treating body wounds and dressings, and similar other duties. A clinical medical assistant has to keep instruments ready and hand them over to doctors during a treatment or operation.

Specialized Duties
Clinical medical assistants even provide services in offices and private settings of ophthalmologists, optometrists and podiatrists. In such clinical facilities, these experts are referred to as ophthalmic, optometric and podiatric medical assistants. Note that the duties vary as per the type of medical care centers. For example, those who work under ophthalmologists conduct basic eye and vision tests. They may even administer eye medications if suggested by the eye doctor.

Optometric assistants perform tasks such as educating patients about the proper use and care of contact lenses. Podiatric medical assistants, on the other hand, are responsible for providing foot-care. They cut foot nails of patients for treatments, dress wounds on feet, etc. They also have to educate patients regarding the procedure and its proceedings.

These are the typical duties that are included in a clinical medical assistant job description. There are many other duties of a medical assistant which can be considered as per the specialization of the health-care facility. The duties in this hospital job may also vary from state to state. The average salary for these jobs is recorded to be around $30,000 per annum. In order to increase medical assistant salary prospects, it is recommended to obtain certifications from professional associations like the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) and Association of Medical Technologists (AMT).