AHSC 1320 - Clinical Medical Assistant I

Credit hours: 3

Prerequisites: PLBT 1300, PLBT 1301, AHSC 1310

Course Description:
This program prepares students for the duties of a Clinical Medical Assistant (CMA) in the clinical setting. Students will begin their course of study in the front office of the medical practice, then moving into the clinical portion of the course. In CMA 1, students will learn about the scope of practice of the Clinical Medical Assisting profession and how to be successful as a student. Many times, CMAs perform routine office tasks to keep the medical offices running efficiently, so they will study professionalism, therapeutic communication, appropriate patient interaction, legal considerations, HIPAA, and bioethics. They learn basic administrative functions in a medical practice including units on medical terminology, electronic medical record and coding. Moving to the clinical side, students first learn infection control and medical asepsis. Regarding patient care, students begin by learning the patient interview. Also covered will be taking and recording vital signs, the components of a physical examination and patient education. In previous courses, students have mastered collecting laboratory specimens and performing successful EKGs. They will review and practice both these skills during the course.

This certificate program will assist students in preparing for the National Health Career Association Certified Clinical Medical Assistant (CCMA) exam.

Student Learning Outcomes:
Students will be able to:

Acquire basic understanding of human anatomy and physiology.
Recognize, identify, and describe functions of the body systems.
Use appropriate medical terminology in both the office setting and medical records.
Understand basic medical office operations.
Behave professionally in an office environment
Introduce medical billing and coding procedures.
Perform a complete patient interview to obtain a medical history.
Obtain vital signs.
Assist physicians with examinations.
Perform appropriate collection of specimens.
Collect of specimens appropriately.
Obtain a clean ECG reading.