COURSE DESCRIPTION: Students are trained in medical assistant administrative and clinical skills which include: answering telephone, greeting patients, updating, and filing patient medical records, filling out insurance forms, handling correspondence, scheduling appointments, and bookkeeping, taking medical histories, recording vital signs, preparing patients for examinations, collecting and preparing laboratory specimens, basic laboratory testing, preparing and administering medications and immunizations, drawing blood and performing electrocardiograms. The Medical Assistant-Clinical will provide students with skills necessary to obtain entry-level positions within a medical facility. Instruction will include medical and surgical asepsis, assisting the physician with physical examination of the patient, assisting in office surgery, electrocardiography, administration of medication by physician order, laboratory skills, assisting with diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, nutrition, vital signs, introduction to anatomy and physiology and related diseases and conditions, and medical terminology, along with basic core class skills. Integrated throughout the course are career preparation standards, which includes communication, interpersonal skills, and problem solving safety, technology, and employment skills.