Maintaining Your Certifications

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Maintaining Professional Status

Most certified professionals are expected to keep their certification current through annual continuing education. Certified and/or registered medical assistants can participate in continuing education programs to maintain their credentials, rather than letting their certification lapse. Once lapsed, they will have to take the certification exam all over again to recertify.

Think about it. The healthcare industry is booming. Every day, more and more medical assisting and similarly trained school graduates enter the job market. An endless stream of trained professionals! Now that you are a medical assistant, you, too, want to land a better job… But with hundreds of millions of competitors already out there, it’s tough to set yourself apart. The only way for you to get an edge over the rest is through recognized certifications and credentials. Otherwise you may quickly find yourself left behind the rest.

Continuing Education (CEU)

Medical assistants usually want to keep using their credential. This is facilitated through continuing education. When a medical assistant fails to acumulate enough CEU, he, or she can still work as a medical assistant, but they can no longer use designated credentials until the certification exam had been retaken, and passed.

• keeps the individual current on new developments and trends
• shows that the individual is serious about his/her career
• provides the necessary assurance of competency
• works wonders for the resume
• enhances professional development
• strengthens patient's confidence
• opens the door to new job opportunities and increased earning potential
• demonstrates pride in the profession and an ongoing commitment education

Do Medical Assistants Need CEUs?

To receive proper credit to maintain their certification status certified medical assistants must document that they have taken approved continuing education courses that apply to the scope of practice of their discipline while their certification status is active.

Various national or private professional associations that function as certifying bodies determine their own continuing education and recertification requirements. They decide which continuing education courses meet their approval based on their own criteria.

Non-certified medical assistants also benefit greatly from participating in continuing education programs! Subject related continuing education courses are an effective means of keeping skills and knowledge current for any professional.

Medical assistants should contact their certifying organization and request details of their association's continuing education course approval process and their CEU documentation requirements! It only takes a few seconds to request complete details.

One way to ease the CEU pain is to do them at home through self-study programs, books, magazines, or even better, on your computer.

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