An increasing number of healthcare organizations across the U.S. are looking for individuals who can operate in the dual role of a medical assistant when rooming and closing each patient visit and medical scribe while the physician or other licensed healthcare provider is examining the patient. Medical assisting and medical scribing are proving to be very stackable careers.
With the significant changes in health care, the concept of team documentation is taking root. Team documentation, also called “scribing,” is a process where other team members assist with documenting visit notes, entering orders and referrals, and preparing prescriptions during a patient visit. This process improves patient-centered care as the physician is less focused on EHR documentation and interacts more with the patient.
Becoming a Medical Scribe – Clinical Medical Assistant instills a sense of cooperation among team members at all healthcare organization levels. It empowers you to take a more active role in managing patient visits.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, projected growth for Medical Records and Health Information Technicians is 9% from 2020 to 2030.
The widespread use of electronic health records in the medical industry increases the demand for medical scribes who can manage and organize the information. The increase in demand also results from a growing need by physicians to find affordable and effective ways to offer more efficient care to patients and streamline processes.
The Medical Scribe – Clinical Medical Assisting combination program provides students with the knowledge and skills to perform clinical procedures in various medical office settings. You will find Medical Assistants working in a variety of clinic settings. Clinical duties may also include taking medical histories, recording vital signs, drawing blood, explaining treatment procedures to patients, preparing patients for examination, assisting the Physician during the patient visit, and assisting with minor surgery.
Students completing this program can sit for the Certified Clinical Medical Assistant (CCMA) exam administered by the National Healthcareer Association (NHA) and the Medical Scribe Certification Exam (MSCETM) administered by AHDPG.
The Medical Scribe component covers topics and processes critical to taking on the administrative and healthcare documentation capture responsibilities of the patient visit. To begin with, learn what medical scribing is and what it isn’t. From there, you will explore how to turn the medical conversation into healthcare documentation, understand the fundamental requirements for capturing the chief complaint, the history, the review of systems, the patient’s history, physical exam, and understand medical decision making. In this part of the program, you will also gain hands-on charting practice in the electronic medical record.
In the Clinical Medical Assisting component of the training, individuals will learn how to help the physician with patient examinations, record patient histories and personal information, measure vital signs, such as blood pressure, and give patient injections of medication as directed by the physician or dictated by state law.
The Phlebotomy component prepares professionals to collect blood and other specimens from clients for laboratory analysis. During this course component, students will become familiar with all aspects related to blood collection and develop comprehensive skills to perform venipuncture methods correctly and safely.
This Electrocardiogram (EKG) component covers topics and processes critical to conducting and interpreting EKGs. To begin, you’ll review the anatomy and physiology of the heart. From there, you will explore the technology used, such as the EKG machine. Next, you’ll learn how to interpret a rhythm strip, and finally, you’ll follow this by discovering the details of myocardial infarction.
The all-inclusive program fee covers everything a student needs to successfully complete the Medical Scribe – Medical Assisting program, including:
This program qualifies for the MyCAA Tuition Assistance Program sponsored by the Department of Defense—a program designed for military spouses.
Upon completing the online training program, a student is eligible* for our optional Clinical Medical Assisting Externship. The Clinical Medical Assisting Externship is a standard 160-hour unpaid rotation. During this Externship, students have a chance to get hands-on experience and practice conducting a variety of procedures on patients with supervision. The Externship will ensure students get a minimum of 50 sticks (a combination of venipuncture/capillary sticks and ten skin punctures) and record this on a log sheet that a lab supervisor signs.
As a participant in this Clinical Externship, you must agree to provide a resume to their assigned Externship Coordinator no less than three weeks following initial contact. Failure to provide such a resume will result in students not participating in the externship opportunity. In addition, the following terms and conditions apply to the Externship:
By participating in this process, students are entering into an unpaid volunteer clinical externship opportunity which, at no time, constitutes an employee-employer relationship. The facility is under no obligation to continue your clinical experience, nor should you maintain these expectations.
*Students who wish to participate in this course’s optional clinical externship portion must complete their program with a grade of 70% or higher on the final exam and course average, spending at least 50 hours in the course. All externship placements are subject to the availability, scheduling, and staffing needs of the externship sites.
We will coordinate an externship for each eligible student at a healthcare organization in their local area. In over eight years of providing this service, we have not had an instance where we could not do this—pandemic or no pandemic. With this said, we cannot guarantee a placement due to circumstances outside our control which include a lack of healthcare organizations located in a rural area, acts of God, situations where healthcare organizations have curtailed their operations due to a pandemic or other cause or in situations where a student chooses not to meet the outlined requirements.
