Working in healthcare can lead to a very rewarding career. If you are looking for a fast way to start your career in healthcare, you might consider becoming a medical assistant. Medical assistants are an important part of the medical field and can help in both administrative and clinical roles in a healthcare facility.

Medical assistants are in demand according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), who projects 18% growth between 2020-2030. If you are interested in pursuing your medical assisting diploma or degree, now is a great time to start your education.

Typical medical assistant duties, roles and responsibilities
If you are the type of person who loves a lot of variety in their work, then medical assisting could be the career for you! Medical assistants have a variety of responsibilities that differ according to practice. They work on many levels of patient care, from their interactions before an appointment to assisting with direct patient care. Some of their responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Recording patient history and personal information
Scheduling patient appointments
Assisting patients as they first enter the office
Process insurance payments
Measure vital assigns such as taking blood pressure, pulse and respiration
Set up exam rooms for examinations
Gathering patient information such as billing and contact information
Drawing blood and pregnancy tests
And making sure the patient is comfortable during an appointment
While a medical assistant’s daily routine can differ greatly depending on the type of medical assistant job, having attention to detail, a professional manner and caring can help you have a successful career.

Medical office administrators work in physicians’ offices, medical clinics, long-term care facilities, hospitals, and many other healthcare service settings. They are responsible for front office duties, including tasks ranging from answering phones and greeting patients to managing health records and transcribing medical documents. Some of the work requires specialized skills, such as the usage of medical terminology or medical coding. Typical duties in medical office administration include:

Diagnosis and procedure coding
Maintaining records
Scheduling appointments and procedures
Ordering supplies and equipment
Medical transcription
Insurance filing and billing

As a PC specialist, you’ll provide technical support to users of personal computers, or PCs. This technical support may take the form of troubleshooting, maintenance or repair, and may take place in person, over the phone or via e-mail. Some PC support services may be preventative in nature, like running antivirus software or clearing up file space to keep desktop computers running smoothly.

In other cases, your work as a PC specialist may require you to diagnose or fix a problem that already exists, such as inoperable computer software or a non-working printer. You may also provide step-by-step support to PC users as they install new programs, run diagnostic tests, set up desktop computers and so on.

As of May 2018, the BLS reported a median annual wage of $53,470 for computer support specialists. For help desk technicians, the salary information website Payscale.com reported an estimated national annual salary range of $31,000-$56,000 for the middle 50% of workers surveyed as of November 2019. Payscale.com also broke down earnings by years of experience. For example, technical support specialists with under 5 years of experience made a salary of $17.01 per hour, while those with 10-20 years of experience earned $22.40 per hour. As of November 2019, entry-level help desk technicians earned $15.18 per hour, compared to $20.27 per hour for technicians with 20 or more years of experience (www.payscale.com).