Medical assistant

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Medical assistants ( MFA ), until July 31, 2006: Medical assistants , in Switzerland medical practice assistants ( MPA ), work mainly in medical practices to support doctors . In addition, almost all authorities, organizations, institutions and companies that have their own medical service or work as medical service providers with medical staff or nursing staff for others can be considered as employers . The Bundeswehr also employs civilian medical specialists and trains them, as do some professional development agencies .

The profession of medical assistant was initially unregulated in Germany in the 1950s. In 1965 the profession of apprenticeship was supplemented with a two-year apprenticeship period and in 1968 by a training regulation according to the Vocational Training Act for two-year dual training.

In 2011, more than 98 percent of women were employed in this profession in Germany and of 14,481 new training contracts, only 167 were signed by men. According to new qualifications for apprenticeships in Germany, medical employees were in 7th place.

tasks

The job has traditionally been described as a typical mixed job (laboratory assistant, secretary, technical and personal assistant rolled into one). Laboratory activities have long been pushed into the background due to the concentration of services in specialized large practices (laboratory communities, community laboratories, recently also in the form of medical care centers ), while the operation of modern office communication technology and the implementation of - sometimes very high-quality and complex - apparatus diagnostics and Therapy with preparation and follow-up often takes up a large part of the activity. Blood withdrawals and injections were and are often carried out (originally not part of the job description).

Medical assistants have a wide variety of tasks depending on the specialty, size and focus of the doctor's office or the operational area of work and in-house division of labor can vary widely. These include, among other things

  • Appointments and coordination of the practice process
  • Performing medical activities
  • Administrative work such as private billing, writing documents and letters on behalf of a doctor
  • Put on bandages
  • Give injections

For the specialization in billing there is also the function name billing assistant .

requirements

A secondary school diploma can be required for training as a medical assistant . The training is also offered to students with a secondary school leaving certificate.

The job requires good communication skills, empathy (empathy, affection , being binding , acting in a customer-oriented manner, being able to make contacts , being able to respond to very different people , also being able to meet and support people who are insecure in a situational way), the ability to define boundaries and assertiveness ( confident and determined Appearance, being able to competently face very demanding, exhausting, sometimes cross-border and distant people ), resilience (being able to remain calm in hectic situations, quick reactions in emergencies, not losing sight of the big picture), discretion and loyalty (handling of sensitive data, professional medical confidentiality , special Trust in the doctor-patient relationship ) and precise, conscientious work (high level of responsibility , mistakes can have a serious effect on the health of patients or cause considerable financial and immaterial damage).

Germany

education

The training for medical assistants is three years in Germany. It can be shortened to two and a half or even two years. The training takes place as dual training in parallel in a doctor's practice and the vocational school (1 to 2 days per week). The basic remuneration is between approx. 1,700 and 3,300 euros (gross), depending on the level of training and professional experience.

The training is intended to prepare for work in general practitioners' and specialist practices, hospitals and other medical care facilities. The contents include:

  • Patient care and counseling
  • Health protection and measures of occupational and practice hygiene
  • Legal and contractual provisions for medical care
  • Assistance with medical diagnostics and therapy
  • Handling drugs, sera and vaccines as well as remedies and aids
  • Basics of prevention and rehabilitation
  • Business organization, administration and accounting
  • Correspondence

The further training to become a specialist for outpatient medical care (until October 1st, 2008: medical assistant, since then with new training and examination regulations) is after two years of professional activity, through participation in a basic module (300 hours) and elective modules of various subjects (120 hours) as well as passing the subsequent exams possible. Corresponding courses are offered by several medical associations.

Training allowance

For medical assistants, the training allowance in the first year of training is € 805, in the second year of training € 850 and in the third year of training € 900.

history

The profession of “doctor's assistant” arose in the 1950s from the need of doctors to have someone available in their practice who had knowledge and skills in both the medical and administrative fields. Until then, nurses, medical-technical assistants and secretaries worked in the practices. The training to become a medical assistant consisted of the essential contents of these three professions, it was initially unregulated and on the basis of learning or in private schools.

In 1965, the profession was recognized as an apprenticeship with a two-year apprenticeship period in some federal states, and in 1968 it was supplemented by training regulations based on the Vocational Training Act for two-year dual training.

In 1986 the training regulations for medical assistants came into force. From now on, the profession will be regulated in accordance with Section 25 of the Vocational Training Act 1969 (new: Section 5 BBIG 2005) and is therefore officially recognized. On the basis of this vocational training, further training opportunities according to Section 46 Vocational Training Act 1969 (new: Section 54 BBIG 2005) became possible. The training now takes three years nationwide.

In the GDR, the office hours assistant was a two-year skilled worker training from 1966. After a professional analysis by the Ministry of Health, it was proposed to rename the profession to an office hours nurse. The job number 6366/01 remained the same. From September 1, 1974, medical school training was offered to nurses. The three-year direct study in the field of consultation hours assistance comprised 40 lessons per week from the 1st to the 4th semester, and 43.75 hours per week in the 5th and 6th semesters (with practical lessons). The curriculum, especially in the basic subjects, was largely identical to the curriculum for nurses. The exam could also be obtained in three and a half to four years while working as a distance learning course. As a result of a “presumably editorial error” in the unification agreement, the profession of “office hours nurse” was not taken into account. So far, there has been no equality with the qualification "nurse", although the Petitions Committee of the German Bundestag had already clearly spoken out in favor of it in 2009.

From 1991 onwards, medical assistants in the new federal states were also trained in accordance with the Federal German Training Ordinance of 1986.

On August 1, 2006, the current regulation on vocational training came into force. In addition to adapting the training content, this resulted in the current job title medical specialist / medical specialist .

In 2008 the Association of Medical Professions e. V. issued a professional code at its federal general assembly.

The professional titles of medical assistant and medical assistant are not protected in Germany and every medical assistant can also call himself medical assistant, regardless of when he graduated.

This profession, which has been trained in dual training under federal law since 1965, is not counted among the health professions on various occasions.

military

There are both civilian and military medical assistants in the Bundeswehr.

Switzerland

In Switzerland this profession is called medical practice assistant or MPA. The training lasts three years. It consists of practical training in a doctor's practice and, in parallel, at one of the MPA schools. It ends with a qualification procedure (QV). The main areas of training are secretariat, laboratory, x-ray, first aid and medical assistance. It takes place in accordance with the Vocational Training Act and is regulated by SERI and the cantonal vocational training offices. There are also private schools in various cantons. Requirements for the training are a minimum age of 16 years and a completed elementary school education.

Austria

The official Austrian job title was ordination assistant for a long time . The new job title is Ordination Assistant. There are also some other names for similar activities, as they were or still are common in Germany for some qualifications from private vocational schools.

Due to the abbreviation MFA in Austria, which has the same name, the profession can easily be confused with the profession of medical specialist assistant (MFA) in Austria. With a flexible combination of different occupations (e.g. nursing assistant) and medical assistant professions (e.g. doctor's assistant and / or laboratory assistant), the professional qualification qualified medical assistant (MFA) / qualified medical assistant (MFA) can be obtained. With the entry into force of the Medical Assistant Professions Act (2013), the job title of doctor's assistant and the areas of activity are redefined.

For example, the Vienna Medical Association has been running ordination aid courses since September 1985.

The profession also exists as an activity in the medical service of the armed forces .

DDR, GB, USA

In the GDR there was temporarily the profession of medical assistant (see also: Feldscher ), which came close to a reduced medical education, comparable to the physician assistant (PA, also Physicians assis or PA, occasionally doctor's assistant) in the USA , while the medical assistant was comparable Profession there is called Medical Assistant . Medical graduates trained in the GDR, on the other hand, are still considered full-fledged doctors under the Unification Treaty.

The internationally used term paramediist also describes a related occupational group as a basic or core occupation. It is not identical to the physician assistant, but as a “doctor-related” qualification is also higher than that of medical assistants, but lower than the medical one. These are independent emergency medical rescue workers who work independently and are appropriately trained for this, while US PAs tend to work in teams to support doctors and are trained for this.

In the USA, medical assistants as well as medical transcriptionists, i.e. medical transcriptionists, are classified as “support occupations” or “service occupations” within “health care”. According to various English-language publications, you are considered a “growth profession”. The “Medical Secretaries”, who are also employed in large numbers, are assigned to the “Office and administrative support occupations”, ie more of an office-oriented or administrative field of activity. The PAs, on the other hand, are assigned closer to the medical profession and the academic health professions (“Professionals and related occupations”).

In the British National Health Service (NHS) there are "Medical secretaries / personal assistants", collectively known as "Secretarial staff" and similar professions. There are also "Healthcare assistants / Health support workers", "Therapy assistants" and the more qualified " Assistant practitioners ". The profession of physician assistants is also represented in the UK National Health Service.

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Office hours help  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Germany:

Austria:

Switzerland:

References and comments

  1. ↑ Ranking list of training occupations by gender ( memento from March 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)
  2. ↑ Ranking list of the training occupations of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)
  3. ↑ Medical assistant or medical assistant (stadt-koeln.de)
  4. ↑ Medical employee in Berufenet the Federal Employment Agency
  5. ↑ collective agreements as .pdf
  6. ↑ New advanced training: “Specialist for outpatient medical care”. In: Rheinisches Ärzteblatt. 11/2008, accessed December 11, 2008
  7. ^ Information page ( memento of November 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) of the Westphalia-Lippe Medical Association , accessed on December 11, 2008
  8. ↑ North Rhine Medical Association, collective wage agreement for MFAs , accessed on August 6, 2018
  9. ↑ a b c history of the profession
  10. ↑ https://www.sprechstundenschwester.de/erinnert/chronik/
  11. ↑ https://www.sprechstundenschwester.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Petition-486-schlussbegruendung.pdf
  12. ^ Bundeswehr medical service: doctor's assistant
  13. ↑ https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/GeltendeFnahm.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=20007997
  14. ↑ Overview of medical professions in the USA in the Career Guide to Industries / Health Care of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on its website.
  15. ↑ Shown on the NHS website, for example, as Wider Healthcare Team / Administration and under Practice management.