Choosing a career in medical assisting is a fantastic step towards a rewarding healthcare profession. If you’re considering the CareerStep Medical Assistant program, a key question you likely have is: how long will it take to complete? CareerStep’s program is designed to be flexible, allowing you to learn at your own pace while providing a comprehensive curriculum to prepare you for a successful career.
The CareerStep Medical Assistant program is structured into various modules, each focusing on essential knowledge and skills needed in the field. Let’s delve into the curriculum to understand the depth and breadth of what you’ll learn.
CareerStep Medical Assistant Program Curriculum Overview
The program is thoughtfully organized to cover a wide range of topics, from foundational healthcare knowledge to specialized medical assisting skills. Here’s a breakdown of the modules you’ll encounter:
Foundational Knowledge Modules
These modules lay the groundwork for your medical assisting career, ensuring you have a solid understanding of the healthcare landscape and fundamental principles.
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Program Orientation: Medical Assistant: This introductory module familiarizes you with the program structure, tools, and resources. You’ll learn how to navigate the online platform, utilize study planners, access support, and understand program expectations.
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Medical Assistant Career Introduction: You’ll gain a comprehensive overview of the medical assisting profession, including the scope of practice, career paths, and the significance of licensure, accreditation, certification, and registration in the field.
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HealthCare Foundational Knowledge and Basic Science: This section is crucial for building your medical vocabulary and understanding of basic health concepts. You’ll learn medical terminology, the importance of nutrition in health and disease, and the role of psychology in patient interaction.
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Anatomy and Physiology Essentials: A deep dive into the human body is essential. This module covers all body systems, from the skin’s layers (epidermis, dermis, hypodermis) to the skeletal, muscular, nervous, and other vital systems. You’ll explore processes like osteogenesis, cell formation, and the functions of key organs like the kidneys. It also touches on essential biological processes from a medical perspective.
Clinical and Patient Care Skills Modules
These modules focus on the practical, hands-on skills required for direct patient interaction and clinical procedures.
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General Patient Care: This module introduces you to the basics of patient care, including preparing examination rooms, assisting patients during examinations, and understanding fundamental pharmacology for medical assistants.
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Pharmacology Basics for Medical Assisting: You’ll learn about drug classifications, their indications, side effects, and adverse reactions. Understanding medication abbreviations and terminology is a key component of this module, ensuring you can accurately handle medication-related tasks.
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Infection Control: Crucial in any healthcare setting, this module covers the causes, diagnostic methods, and prevention of infectious and communicable diseases. You’ll learn essential protective measures to maintain a safe environment for both patients and healthcare providers.
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Testing and Laboratory Procedures: This section provides a practical understanding of specimen collection and handling, blood and urine sample procedures, and standard vision and hearing screening tests. You’ll also be introduced to common techniques used in medical laboratories.
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Patient Care Coordination and Education: Effective patient care goes beyond procedures. This module focuses on coordinating general patient care according to best practices and understanding your role in patient education, ensuring patients are well-informed and supported.
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Phlebotomy: A core skill for many medical assistants, phlebotomy is thoroughly covered. You’ll learn about equipment, supplies, techniques for collecting, storing, and processing blood samples, and patient care before, during, and after blood draws.
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Venipuncture Labs: This module provides hands-on knowledge of venipuncture, emphasizing medical history taking before invasive procedures, maintaining sterility and asepsis, and various techniques for drawing venous, arterial, and capillary blood, including different types of injections.
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EKG and Cardiovascular: Focusing on heart health, this module covers the basic anatomy of the heart and the steps for performing electrocardiograms (EKGs/ECGs), including equipment calibration, standardization, and proper procedure.
Administrative and Professional Skills Modules
These modules equip you with the essential administrative, legal, and professional skills needed to thrive in a medical office environment.
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Medical Administrative Assistant: You’ll learn about different healthcare delivery models, the types of services offered in medical offices (general and specialty), and ancillary services and alternative therapies. This provides a broader understanding of the healthcare business landscape.
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Communication and Customer Service in the Healthcare Office: Effective communication is paramount. This module focuses on various communication types and styles used in healthcare, emphasizing verbal, non-verbal, and written communication skills to enhance patient experience and outcomes.
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Comprehensive Electronic Health Records: In today’s digital healthcare world, EHR proficiency is essential. You’ll learn how patient records are used and regulated, practice patient scheduling, clinical information reporting, and explore revenue cycle and financial reporting within EHR systems.
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Medical Laws and Ethics: This module covers critical legal and ethical considerations in healthcare, including prescription and medication administration regulations, HIPAA, and legal aspects of medical documentation.
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Externship Readiness Skills: Preparing for your externship is a key step. This module focuses on career resources, time management, critical and creative thinking, stress management, communication skills (verbal, nonverbal, written), resume writing, interview skills, study habits, self-motivation, professionalism, and learning from failures.
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Career Success in Healthcare: This module helps you define professionalism and success, set career goals (long-, medium-, and short-range), and further develop your time management skills for long-term career growth.
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Fundamentals of HIPAA: A deep dive into HIPAA, covering privacy and security rules, the HITECH Act, regulations for business associates, and HIPAA documentation and training requirements to ensure patient data protection.
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Applying For Your Required Externship*: This module guides you through the externship application process, including creating your profile in the Learner Placement Portal and utilizing career resources to find an externship opportunity.
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Clinical Externship Experience*: The externship is where you gain real-world experience, applying your learned skills in a clinical setting and accumulating practical hours for certification.
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Program Completion: Medical Assistant: This module prepares you for the final steps after completing the program, guiding you on what to do next to launch your career.
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Medical Assistant Final Exam: This module prepares you for the final exam, outlining the format, policies, and how to effectively prepare.
*It’s important to note that CareerStep does not guarantee externships, and placement is the learner’s responsibility, subject to eligibility requirements.
Program Duration and Time Commitment
Because CareerStep’s Medical Assistant program is self-paced, the exact time to completion varies. However, students typically complete the program in around 4 to 12 months. The faster end of this range is achievable with a dedicated full-time study schedule, while those studying part-time may take closer to a year.
The program is designed to be flexible to accommodate different learning speeds and life schedules. You can adjust your study hours to fit your personal commitments.
Factors that influence program completion time include:
- Study Schedule: Full-time vs. part-time learning.
- Learning Pace: Individual learning speed and comprehension.
- Prior Knowledge: Existing healthcare or medical knowledge may accelerate learning.
- Time Commitment: The number of hours dedicated to studying each week.
In conclusion, while there isn’t a fixed duration, the CareerStep Medical Assistant program offers a comprehensive and flexible path to becoming a certified medical assistant. The “how long” depends on your individual pace and dedication, but the program is structured to provide you with all the necessary knowledge and skills to launch your medical assisting career.
