I was going to a local college for my degree. The school got shady and I dropped out. I am now thinking about going online to finish my degree. I was wondering if anyone's done that and if it's a goodidea in general. Please give me some feed back. If anyone has done this what online school did you go to and was it a good experience?
Thanks
Angela

Your Professional Title/Credentials: future student

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Key to Success -- Proper Training for Medical Assistants!
Distance vs. traditional vocational instruction: hidden pitfalls of online training for Medical Assistants --

Date Released: 01/17/2007
Types of Medical Assistant Programs: Traditionally, there are two types of medical assistant programs, two-year career training programs which result in an Associate’s Degree, and a one-year, or accelerated medical assistant programs held at vocational training institutions resulting in either a certificate or diploma that also qualify their graduates to sit for the national certification exams.
Job Oriented Vocational Training: Vocational training institutions usually structure their programs to be realistic and simulate the workplace to teach their students the skills they need to get a job, stay employed, and advance in their profession.

This includes teaching medical assistant students all administrative, clinical, technical, and nontechnical skills, enhancing problem solving, and teamworking skills, improving their oral communications, and work ethics, refining their interpersonal, and collaborative abilities with others, and reinforcing cognitive traits that they will have to rely on once they are on the job.

Training on the Job: However, formal training in medical assisting while generally preferred is not always required. There still are many employers, usually physicians in group or private practices, who prefer to train their medical assistants according to their own specific needs.

Because all medical assistants, whether trained in a school, or on the job must be able to efficiently handle administrative, and clinical skills, which includes simple STAT lab tests, running automated office machines, autoclaves, urinalysis, and hematology systems, and pass certain other related competencies, prior volunteer experience in the healthcare field, or prior work experience in a nursing home, health clinic, home healthcare setting, hospital, customer services, or reception desk can prove to be extremely helpful!

Modern vs. Traditional Instruction: More and more medical assisting and related technical career courses are being made available over the Internet via structured distance education programs. The availability of online classes is expanding coast to coast. They promise conveniences that real classroom teaching can hardly provide.

Although their modules / lessons are often well thought out and planned through use of virtual classrooms, audio visual presentations, and digital collaboration via a personal computer they do not necessarily offer the same quality and quantity of education as on campus classroom instruction will. Since online students are lacking in the direct student-instructor, student-student interaction, and clinical hands-on supervision of clincal skill training they automatically miss out in some of the most crucial and indispensable requisite areas of quality career training.

Choosing the Right Program: Experts in the field always recommend that medical assistant students only deal with reputable training institutions, and choose from respected programs that are recognized and accredited by the U.S. Department of Education and their recognized accreditation bodies. Furthermore, seeking out schools where caring instructors are "real world" faculty professionals qualified (through professional credentials) and trained in the areas of clinical, administrative, and pharmacology lab will provide medical assistant students the knowledge and training they need to succeed in the modern workforce.

The U.S. Department of Education warns: (Quote) "Diploma mills are schools that are more interested in taking your money than providing you with a quality education, you need to know how to protect yourself as a consumer." (End Quote).

Medical assistant seeking classroom or distance education programs for their training should check whether they are approved by the U.S. Department of Education, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES, and check with regional accrediting agencies that have been evaluated and deemed to meet high quality standards.

Not all excellent schools and programs are accredited (yet), because the process takes great efforts and a few years, but at least they should be planning and actively working on it. So, really really ask questions!!!! If you like what you hear, then good. If you're getting "vibes" and feel a program might not be what you're looking for -- walk! Especially if it's online. Read more about this subject at: http://www.medicalassistant.net/distance_ed.htm

Danni R.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: Website Owner / Site Admin

thanks!!!

Your Professional Title/Credentials: future student

Are You Still In School? no

Are You Working? no