November 23, 2008
becoming a medical assistant
Although sometimes people are trained on the job for this career, becoming a medical assistant usually requires you to complete an accredited training program. Once you have completed the training program, you might also want to consider becoming certified. Although this is not usually required by employers, they do prefer to hire medical assistants who are certified or who have previous experience. Accredited programs for becoming a medical assistant are available in 46 of the 50 states. These 569 programs have been accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), and usually last one to two years depending on whether they result in a certificate or an associate’s degree.