Medical Assisting Certificate Program

Love helping people? Want to work in health care? Medical assisting may be just what you're looking for!

• Medical assisting is a high demand health care career -- one of the 10 fastest growing occupations in the nation! (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Graduates find positions in a wide range of workplaces, including physician's offices, urgent care centers, insurance companies, and many more.
• Earn a UC certificate through this comprehensive, accredited program that includes more than 160 hours of clinical experience in a doctor's office.

The Medical Assisting Technical Certificate prepares students to be competent in the cognitive (knowledge), psychomotor (skills), and affective (behavior) learning domains to enter the medical assisting profession. The coursework is designed to develop skills in critical thinking, effective communication, knowledge integration, information literacy, social responsibility, and life-long learning. This is a full-time, intensive program. 

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Graduates of the Medical Assisting Technical Certificate program will have the formal training required to take the certification examination of the American Association of Medical Assistants. Most employers in the health care environment recommend that medical assistants have the Certified Medical Assistant (CMA(AAMA)) credential.

The five-year average for the job placement rate for the years 2018-2022 is 92.50%. 

• 100% of the 2020 Medical Assisting Graduates obtained positions in the health care field.
  
• Employers that hired 2020 UC Blue Ash students reported 100% satisfaction with the graduate’s preparedness for professional practice.
• The graduate survey results of the class of 2020 reflected that 100% of the students were satisfied with their education and experience in the program.

The University of Cincinnati Blue Ash Medical Assisting Program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs upon the recommendation of the Medical Assisting Education Review Board (MAERB).

Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP)
9355 113th Street North #7709
Seminole, Florida, 33775
Phone: 727-210-2350

Graduates will have completed 160 hours of hands-on clinical practice in a medical setting under the direct supervision of a physician and are qualified to assist physicians in a private office, clinic or other health care facility. Medical assistants are skilled in both clinical and administrative functions, providing considerable flexibility to the physician's office.

The program does not result in licensure of any kind. Students are eligible to take the CMA (AAMA) credential (recognized by all 50 states), but this credential is not awarded by the University of Cincinnati. The CMA credential is potentially valuable to employers and therefore highly recommended to graduates of this certificate program.

Medical Assisting is a profession with many rewards as practitioners can perform both administrative and clinical services, filling several roles in a variety of healthcare environments. The Bureau of Labor Statistics clearly outlines that it is a growth field with an anticipated 18% growth rate from 2020-2030.

Medical assistants work directly with providers and patients with the goal of providing healthcare and ensuring patient safety. It is a position with a great deal of responsibility.

As with any healthcare position, there are certain occupational risks that come into play, and these include the following:

• Exposure to infectious diseases
• Sharps injuries
• Bloodbourne pathogens and biological hazards
• Chemical and drug exposure
• Ergonomic hazards from lifting, sitting, and repetitive tasks
• Latex allergies
• Stress

At the same, there are protections set up by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), and those protections are particularly important within a healthcare environment. OSHA has a series of standards that protect the safety of healthcare workers and patients.

Information from the Medical Assisting Education and Review Board.

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A candidate for the UCBA Medical Assisting Services program must have abilities and skills as follows:

• Observation: Candidates must have sufficient sensory capacity to observe in lecture and clinical settings.  Sensory and tactile skills must be adequate to observe a patient’s condition and to elicit information through procedures regularly required in comprehensive medical assisting patient evaluation.
•  Communications: The candidate must be able to communicate effectively and sensitively with patients in order to elicit information, describe changes in mood, activity and posture; assess nonverbal communication; and be able to effectively and efficiently transmit information to patients, fellow students, faculty and staff. Candidates must demonstrate effective writing skills. Candidate must also have the ability to respond quickly and professionally to patients in emergency situations.
• Motor: The candidate must have sufficient motor function to elicit information from patients by appropriate diagnostic or therapeutic maneuvers; be able to perform basic tests; be able to execute motor movements reasonably required to provide general care and emergency treatment to patients.
• Visual Acuity: The candidate must be able to discriminate colors, identify the appropriate instruments and supplies at a 2 foot distance.
• Intellectual/Conceptual, Integrative and Quantitative Abilities: The candidate must be able to measure, calculate, reason, analyze and synthesize. Problem solving, a critical skill demanded of allied health practitioners, requires all of these intellectual abilities. Candidates must be able to read and understand medical literature.
• Behavioral and Social Attributes: The candidate must possess the emotional health required for full utilization of his or her intellectual abilities, the exercise of good judgment, the prompt completion of all responsibilities attendant to care of patients and the development of mature, sensitive and effective relationships with patients. Candidates must also be able to tolerate taxing workloads, function effectively under stress, adapt to a changing environment, display flexibility and learn to function in the face of the uncertainties inherent in clinical problems of many patients.

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