Pine Technical College honors Medical Assistants Recognition Week

 

In honor of Medical Assistants Recognition Week, Oct. 15 – Oct. 19, 2012, students and faculty in PTC’s medical assistant program are working to promote their profession within the larger campus community.

“Every year, MARWeek (Medical Assistants Recognition Week) is celebrated during the third full week in October,” says Krista Hoekstra, PTC’s Director of Nursing and Health Sciences. “Because our medical assistant program is new as of this fall, it’s especially exciting for us since it’s our first year honoring the profession with our inaugural cohort,” Hoekstra explains.

Medical assistants (MAs) work in the allied health profession and perform both clinical and administrative procedures, and with this summer’s historic Supreme Court ruling that upheld the president’s healthcare law in June, the impact for the healthcare profession and the demand for medical assistants in East Central Minnesota and Western Wisconsin is expected to be significant. It is projected that a new model of healthcare delivery in hospitals and clinics that relies heavily upon medical assistants working alongside nurses and doctors will become the new standard, sparking a need for qualified medical assistants.

“With their unique versatility, MAs are proving to be the allied health professional of choice for this decade,” Hoekstra says. “In fact, according to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the MA profession continues to be one of the fastest-growing occupations, and we’re proud to offer such a comprehensive associate degree program to help fill the need as well as, of course, give our students and graduates an in-demand, valuable career,” Hoekstra adds.

 

Photos at top: Students enrolled in PTC’s inaugural medical assistant cohort practice laboratory procedures in the college’s all-new, state-of-the-art medical assisting laboratory in MEDA 1201: Clinical Procedures.