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Medical Assistants Education & Certification

Medical assistants are either holding a certification or they belong to the category of registered health care workers, who are engaged in the activities of looking after administration and clinical related work in the office of a licensed health practitioner.

They ensure that the job assigned to them is performed smoothly. Depending on the location of the job in some countries it is regulated by the governing Health Department, otherwise the entire control and responsibility lies on the licensed health practitioner employing Medical assistant.

The Past & Present of Medical Assistants Training:
Looking at the past scenario as far as United States is concerned, Medical Assistant were getting training, while working on the job from the trained medical staff working in the health care organization. This is before American Association of Medical Assistants came in to existence in 1956. The Medical Assistants as an established practice were employed at ambulatory care centers, emergency care facility providers and office of the licensed health practitioner.

As of late tremendous changes have taken place resulting in Medical Assistants finding job openings in private as well as in public hospitals providing assistance to both in-door and outdoor patients.

Qualifying Education Requirement:
The basic minimum education required for medical assistants is post secondary training available at the vocational and technical educational institutes, community colleges, online education providers etc.

These Educational Institute’s Medical Assistance training requires accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs abbreviated as (CAAHEP) or the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools abbreviated as (ABHES). This is a fundamental requirement for the graduated students from these institutions to acquire Certification or Registration.

At present there are more than 600 CAAHEP accredited training facilities through above 500 institutes. About 200 institutions have accreditation from ABHES offering Medical Assistants training. Besides these associations are also engaged in imparting the Medical Assistant training maintaining the required standards class room teaching and prescribed number of hours; exposure in the laboratories for gaining practical experience.

Certification and Registration Facilities:
Although certification is not compulsory, but the employers insist that their employees hold the necessary certification or registration. The services of certification are offered to the candidates through four respected professional organizations out of which most prominent is American Association of Medical assistants.

American Association of Medical assistants:
The certification process followed by American Association of Medical assistants ensures high competency level of education and training of the medical assistant through their examinations complying with the National Board of Medical Examiners specializing in Medical Profession related examinations. The examination is conducted through out the year at regular intervals, which are held using the facilities of computerized testing centers through out the country.

Only the candidates who have undergone theoretical education and practical training through CAAHEP or ABHES Institutes are eligible to appear in the CMA (AAMA) examination and qualifying candidates CMA (AAMA) credentials of the certification. It can be used as a title after the name by the qualifying candidate. One is required to get the recertification within a period of 5 years i.e. before the expiry of certification validity, which takes place on completion of 5 years unless recertified. The employer can verify the validity of the certification on line at the time of offering employment.

CMA in capital letters is copyright of AAMA and AAMA is not part of American Medical Association, which is an altogether separate entity.

American Technologists
Besides CMA certification by AAMA, one can choose to be a Registered Medical Assistant (RMA), which is offered by American Technologists (AMT) for certifying medical assistants following the same basic education training courses of CAAHEP or ABHES. AMT was founded in 1972 is a parallel certifying organization, which is also well recognized by the employers.

National Health Career Association
National Health Career Association abbreviated as (NHA) has grown very rapidly through out the United States and is specializing in offering Certification of Medical Assistants in Clinical (CCMA) and Administration (CCMAA) separately depending upon the choice of the candidate. NHA CCMA is also offering certification in Phlebotomy.

National Center for Competency Testing
National Center for Competency Testing is an organization, which follows very stringent norms and the result is highly qualified Medical Assistant certified by the organization giving the title of NCMA to the qualifying candidates. It is a private third party Certifying Agency. Recertification when due requires 14 hours of class room training and passing of the examination by the organization.

Tags: Assistants, Certification, Education, Medical

Virtual Assistants Offer Economic Advantages To Business Owners

Building a successful business can turn into a nightmare of headaches, frustration and exhaustion, if you aren’t careful. Unfortunately, the more successful you are, the more administrative tasks you have; the more time you spend on administrative tasks, the less time you have to generate new revenue.

It’s a vicious, vicious cycle.

So what’s a business owner to do?

Hire a virtual assistant.

What’s a virtual assistant?

Virtual assistants (VA’s)are professional office assistants who provide office services and support without actually being physically present, by using the Internet, fax and telephone. Virtual Assistants also complete work through the use of online collaborative workstations. And since much of their work is done online, they can work locally or globally eliminating the need for you to search for local qualified help.

In a nutshell, the virtual assistant takes the traditional role of the temp worker and elevates it to the status of entrepreneur. Because the virtual assistant is self-employed, bills only the hours work or by tasks completed, and is dependent on referrals and steady work flow from existing clients, she can be the perfect solution for a growing business.

A virtual assistant offers several distinct advantages over a paid employee. When you hire a virtual assistant you get all the benefits of outsourcing – no employee tax and benefits issues. Yet, you still get the loyalty and reliability of a company employee.

How practical is a virtual assistant?

As more and more businesses move their marketing and communications to the Internet, virtual assistants become more and more the obvious solution to staffing problems. For an hourly fee of $25 to $35, less than the cost of temps or employees.

However, it should be pointed out, VA’s with specialized skills and backgrounds do charge higher rates. By using a virtual assistant, businesses can take advantage of professional assistance and a variety of skills at the click of a mouse.

Virtual assistants are already computer trained, and can assist with your specific needs from traditional office support services to highly specialized areas including web page design. Virtual assistants also provide basic word processing, phone answering, bill paying, appointment scheduling and calendar maintenance. You can even custom-train your virtual assistant to go beyond administrative support to client development and marketing support.

As cable Internet, wireless Internet, and other broadband solutions continue to grow at an amazing pace, virtual assistants will become even more vital to business owners.

If you would like more information regarding hiring a virtual assistant, contact Rosalind Harris at:rharris@instantassistant.net or visit http://instantassistant.net

Tags: Advantages, Assistants, Business, Economic, Offer, Owners, Virtual

Legal Assistants, Paralegals and Lawyers – What’s the Difference?

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If you’ve ever dreamed of one day becoming a lawyer but you’ve been hesitant to take the plunge, a viable alternative would be a legal assistant or paralegal. Both are two peas in a pod and thus either one is probably as close as you can get to becoming a lawyer, without actually being a lawyer.

In addition, employment in this field is projected to grow much faster than average. The current trend of employers trying to reduce costs by hiring paralegals to perform duties formerly carried out by lawyers is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. As a result, employment opportunities are projected to grow much faster than average for the next 10 years or so.

From doing extensive research on various cases to helping create legal drafts and filing every important legal document, interested individuals can actually learn all that even in the comfort of their own homes through online paralegal training.

Online Training

From doing extensive research on various cases to helping create legal drafts and filing every important legal document, interested individuals can actually learn all that even in the comfort of their own homes through online paralegal training.

This is where you’ll actually get the basic knowledge that you’ll need in order to become a full-pledged legal assistant. However, be advised that law firms as well as other legal institutions are looking for highly skilled legal assistants who can outwit others with their keen sense of critical thinking.

Many online legal assistant and paralegal training programs will condense 27 subject units into 10 with 6 and 12-month certificate programs being offered. How you want to approach the training is really up to you and how the different options being offered best fit in your budget, schedule and how quickly you can master the subject matter.

Online paralegal training clearly has its’ perks with the obvious one being convenience.

One must always keep in mind that even though the paralegals or legal assistants’ primary function, whether working for a private law firm or government agency, is to assist the lawyers with their case loads. Duties include extensive case research and organizing all types of files, drafting contracts for clients, mortgages, drafting of separation agreements, tax returns, planning estates as well as other important legal duties.

However, there are actually some paralegals that do more than that. At times, they are also asked to organize and coordinate the schedules and activities of other employees in the law office, perhaps even to track law office financial records. Of course, this is clearly employer dependent and on the skill set each legal assistant brings to the table. On the other hand, it’s always best to be prepared for such tasks, which is why you never place limits on yourself and why you should always be looking for ways to obtain additional training. In other words, even after you earn a 6 or 12-month certificate online keep going.

A few simple ways to enhance your knowledge is by reading various law books as well as absorbing the legal environment by watching the news and keeping abreast of current events. One should always strive to keep themselves up to snuff with whatever is happening in the news and try to challenge yourself even further by coming up with arguments and other legal discussions concerning whichever cases you’ve been assigned to handle.

Online training boasts of some of the best minds in the legal profession. They can offer their expertise in creating drafts for whichever situation that they may have a use for it and basically just give legal assistant hopefuls the basic knowledge behind law.

Due to the current and projected abundance of work opportunities is one of the primary reasons why there’s been a literal mushrooming of online paralegal training sites popping up. Many of the traditional brick and mortar training schools and facilities are now offering online training.

Browse through all sorts of online paralegal training sites, compare training fees as well as how extensive their online paralegal training programs are. You’ll make a wise chose if you put the same effort into finding the right source to train you and as plan on putting into the learning process once you choose who to receive your training from.

A great place to research and find answers to everything “paralegal” is Total Paralegal. Simply click the Online Paralegal Training link in the resource box below.

Tags: Assistants, Difference, Lawyers, Legal, Paralegals, What's

Legal Assistants and Paralegals – The Future Is Bright

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One of most common ways to become a legal assistant or paralegal is through a community college program that leads to an associate’s degree. Another common route; primarily for those who already have a college degree, is through a program that leads to a certification in paralegal studies.

Many legal assistants and paralegals have associate degrees in paralegal studies or a bachelor’s degree paired with a certificate in paralegal studies. Currently, a small number of schools offer bachelors’ or masters’ degrees in paralegal studies. A few employers train paralegals on the job, hiring college graduates with no legal experience or promoting experienced legal secretaries. Others have gained experience in a technical field useful to law firms, like tax preparation for tax and estate planning, criminal justice, nursing or health administration for personal injury practice.

With 250+ paralegal programs approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) and an estimated 1,000 colleges and universities, law schools and proprietary schools offering formal paralegal training programs – the field is highly represented. Although many programs don’t require ABA approval, graduating from an ABA-approved program can enhance one’s employment opportunities – it’s a credibility thing for some employers.

Program admission requirements vary greatly – from a few college credits or courses to a bachelor’s degree for others, to high school graduates, those with legal experience, passing a standardized test, to simply having a favorable personal interview.

Many legal assistant and paralegal programs include 2-year associate degree programs, 4-year bachelor degree programs and certificate programs that can take as little as a few months to complete. Most certificate programs provide intensive and specialized paralegal training for individuals who already hold college degrees. On the other hand, associate and bachelor degree programs usually combine paralegal training with courses in other academic subjects.

Obviously, the quality of paralegal training programs can vary with the higher quality programs usually including job placement services.

Courses range from introducing students to the legal applications of computers, including how to perform legal research on the Internet to more and more paralegal training programs offering internships to assist students in gaining practical experience by working for several months in the real world. Internships could be with a private law firm, the office of a public defender or attorney general, a bank, a corporate legal department, a legal aid organization or a government agency. Clearly, the experience gained is an asset when one is seeking a job after graduation and for many can lead to a job with the company they interned with.

Most employers don’t require certification but earning a voluntary certificate from a professional society does have its advantages when it comes to finding a job. The National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) has established standards for certification that requires various combinations of education and experience. Paralegals who meet their standards are eligible to take a 2-day examination, offered three times a year at one of several regional testing centers. Those who pass can then use the Certified Legal Assistant (CLA) designation. NALA also offers an advanced paralegal certification for those who want to specialize in specific areas of the law.

The Paralegal Advanced Competency Exam offers professional recognition to legal assistants and paralegals that have earned a bachelor’s degree and have at least 2 years of experience. Once they pass this test they can use the Registered Paralegal (RP) designation.

Legal assistants and paralegals must have the ability to document and present their findings and opinions to their supervising attorneys. They also need to understand legal terminology, have good research and investigative skills and be able to do legal research using a computer and the internet. They also need to stay abreast of new developments in the laws that affect their area of expertise. The most common way many legal assistants and paralegals expand their knowledge is by participating in continuing legal education seminars.

Because legal assistants and paralegals deal with the public on an ongoing basis they need to be “shining examples” of ethical standards for the legal profession. The National Association of Legal Assistants, the National Federation of Paralegal Associations and a few States have established ethical guidelines for them to follow.

Employment Outlook
Legal assistants and paralegals held about 224,000 jobs in 2004 with about 70% being employed by private law firms; most of the remainder worked for corporate legal departments and various levels of government. Within the Federal Government, the U.S. Department of Justice is the largest employer, followed by the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. A small number of paralegals own their own businesses and work as freelance legal assistants, contracting their services to attorneys or corporate legal departments.

As a whole, employment in this field is projected to grow much faster than average. The current trend of employers trying to reduce costs by hiring paralegals to perform duties formerly carried out by lawyers is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. As a result, employment opportunities are projected to grow much faster than average for the next 10 years or so.

As in all fields, compensation varies greatly due to the high number of variables but in general, salaries depend on education, training, experience, the type and size of employer and the geographic location of the job. As a whole, legal assistants and paralegals who work for large law firms or in large metropolitan areas earn more than those who work for smaller firms or in less populated regions. In addition to salary, many also receive bonuses. In mid 2004, the average salary for all legal assistants or paralegal was a tad over $39,000 per year.

Tags: Assistants, Bright, Future, Legal, Paralegals