The Medical Assistant Program is a 76.5 Quarter Credit Hour program of study containing 1060 hours oftraining that prepares the student for entry-level employment as a Medical Assistant.

Medical Assistants work in doctors' offices,clinics, and hospitals. They work as medical secretaries, medical receptionists, insurance clerks, medical clinical assistants, and medical laboratory assistants.

Their duties may include: typing, filing,handling telephone calls, and appointments, giving injections, drawing blood, assisting the doctor with the examination and treatment of patients, and operating EKG and other medical laboratory equipment.

The Medical Assistant curriculum stems from the philosophy of the Capps organization and the standards of the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES). The program of study provides educational preparation for the medical assistant occupation by combining classroom and clinical experiences with a supervised externship to validate competencies in both administrative and clinical skills. A list of text books utilized in this training program is included within the supplement to this catalog.

Normal completion time for day students is ten months and for night students, thirteen months. Classes are conducted Monday through Thursday. Day students attend class six hours a day, for thirty-five weeks, and night students attend class four hours per day for fifty-five weeks. The clinical rotation portion is forty hours per week for five weeks (200 hours).

Medical Assistant students are required to take and successfully pass the national certification examination for Medical Assistants (NCMA) administered through the National Center for Competency Testing (NCCT) as a prerequisite for assignment to externship. A drug screen and background check are also required. As of the publication date of this catalog, licensing is not required by the States of Alabama or Florida. Licensing requirements vary by State. A diploma is awarded to graduates.