Varied Duties Of Medical Assisting
Tape recordings of the telephone continuously ringing and patients asking questions are played to give students of medical assistant certification course the feel of an actual office. "We try to simulate the pressure of an office," said Vera Davisprogram coordinator. "Otherwise (students) would be overwhelmed" when they get on a job.
Besides the general health curriculum in medical assistant certification, courses are taught in ethics and law to alert students to malpractice issues.
Students can specialize in either clinical or administrative courses, although most prefer to be proficient in both, which does not require extra schooling, Hildebrand said.
At the end of the first year, students are placed in "externships," in medical offices and hospitals, where they receive on-the-job supervision and training. "More often than not, that's how they obtain their employment," Hildebrand said. "A medical assistant is completely qualified for a physician's office environment as well as emergency medical clinics." Because so few accredited programs exist, students can enroll in Triton's or Harper's through a "charge-back" program, which allows them to enroll in programs through their own community colleges and pay in-district tuition. Tuition at both schools is about $2,000 for the entire program. Each school has about 30 students in its program. The courses were "very thorough," said Diane Canestrini-Chiodo, 24, of Lombard, who graduated from Triton's program three years ago and works for Westside Medical Associates Ltd., a Melrose Park medical practice. "I had never heard of medical assisting before. (I learned ) every aspect of the medical office." Canestrini-Chiodo had started nursing school but wanted a less techincal profession that still offered contact with patients. There is "very little job burnout," in this field," Hildebrand said. "There are so many things (medical assistants) can do" that they usually are kept interested. Billy Wasserburger's screams do not stop after "Dr. Jerry" pulls on rubber gloves and slathers silver sulfadrazine cream on the tiny hands that the 2-year-old burned on an electric stove. "Hold still so Dr. Jerry can make your hands feel better," the boy's mother, Jami, says. Jerry Chesley talks soothingly as he bandages the burns, then writes a prescription for a painkiller. Billy's father will drive 50 miles to get it filled on this wintry night because Chesley's supply has run out. Some folks here refer to Chesley as Dr. Jerry, even though he takes pains to remind them that he is not a doctor. He is, instead, a physician's assistant, a medical practitioner with much less formal training than a physician.
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