Medical Assistant Schools in Rhode Island

Residents of the state of Rhode Island have been increasing in number. And alongside this positive growth, the healthcare industry has increased nearly 20 percent statewide. One of the many employment positions opening up in hospitals and outpatient clinics is that of medical assistants. These support positions are essential nationwide and offer a promising career to many.

Take some time to review your options for medical assisting programs in Rhode Island and request information from the schools that interest you today.

Medical Assistant Education in Rhode Island

Rhode Island is home to many traditional four-year colleges, community colleges, technical schools, and non-traditional higher-learning institutions. Medical assisting programs can be found readily throughout the state, many of which offer schedules that allow you to work at your own pace rather. To find out which Rhode Island medical assisting schools may be best for you, contact those you see on our site and ask for detailed program information. This can help you compare and decide which route may be best for you.

To enter higher learning institutions in Rhode Island, there are requirements that must be met before you can be admitted. You must usually be a resident of the state and have graduated from a secondary school or have taken a GED program to completion. Aside from this, applicants to colleges or online universities must often be at least 18 years old. If you want to study at an online college to become a medical assistant, it is best if you own your own computer and have a steady, reliable Internet connection to keep your studies from being interrupted.

Medical Assisting Careers in Rhode Island

As a medical assistant in Rhode Island, you will be able to look for work in a clinic or hospital environment assisting healthcare providers in performing different clerical and administrative duties as well as in assisting patients. Depending on the needs of the day, or those of the environment in question, these responsibilities can expand, making you vital to the efficiency of the entire healthcare apparatus.

In most outpatient clinics and healthcare facilities, clinical medical assistants help drive patient care activities on a daily basis. They are responsible for handling patients with a focus on their healthcare prior to seeing their physician or specialist. Tracking a patient’s height and weight, taking their blood pressure, recording changes in their medical records and noting differences in health since the last visit are all the responsibility of the clinical medical assistant. You might also be called upon to assist patients with mobility issues or health complications in clinical settings.

To complement the role of the clinical medical assistant, there are administrative medical assistants as well. As the name implies, you are charged with the record-keeping and business duties that are needed to keep an outpatient clinic or healthcare facility running smoothly and meeting the demands of patients on a timely basis. Like in any office setting, you will be expected to maintain records, communicate on behalf of the clinic, manage payments, and maintain a professional atmosphere that will make patients feel at ease when attending appointments.

Apart from these two types of medical assisting programs in Rhode Island, there are also specialized medical assistants whose roles revolve around a specific type of medicine or medical care. Specializations are common in the world of healthcare, as medicine is a broad topic that requires compartmentalization in order to be administered effectively to those who need care.

Specialized medical assistants, not unlike they physician counterparts, will be educated on a particular kind of medicine as well as learning what a clinical medical assistant does. You will also be trained to operate specific medical equipment such as x-ray machines, MRIs or work in the operating room as a surgical technologist. This makes it possible to communicate with patients about on their specific health needs, answer certain questions and demystify aspects of care for procedures the patient may undergo.

Job Outlook for Medical Assistants in Rhode Island

From 2000 to 2012, the state of Rhode Island saw an increase in all healthcare jobs across the industry. These include graduate and post-graduate degrees as well as certificate holders of technical programs. The future also looks promising, as healthcare careers are expected to be one of the state’s biggest employment sectors through 2020.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, medical assistants in the state of Rhode Island earn an annual median salary of $33,000 according to 2014 BLS data. This figure is subject to change, depending on experience, and may also be affected by specialization within the field. See the graph below to compare career salaries in Rhode Island.

Listed below are all of the schools offering Medical Assistant programs in Rhode Island. As a rule, you should contact at least 3-5 schools during the course of your research, and ideally more. There are important differences between the programs in terms of cost, admissions requirements, and other characteristics, and, as with many things in life, the way to find the best Medical Assistant program for your needs is to spend some time shopping around.

Here Are The Medical Assistant Schools…