4 Golden Rules to Survive as a Medical Assistant

  • Medical Assistant
  • February 14, 2025
  • 2.5k views
  • 3 min read
A medical assistant on the phone at a desk, exemplifying Rules to Survive as a Medical Assistant in a professional setting.

If you want to work as a medical assistant, you should know you got out of the frying pan and thrown into the fire when you step into the professional world. Therefore you should prepare your mind for tough challenges and change your comfort zone from time to time.

Following, we are going to discuss the golden rules you should follow to survive as an assistant.

Learn the Ropes

Working as a Medical Assistant, your biggest responsibility is patient flow. You have to ensure everything goes smoothly. Therefore, you need to learn the ropes from your first day, including how things are organized.

You need to pay close attention to filling and the terminology being used. You have to see how you fit in all of this. By the time you have finished school, you should be prepared to jump in the line and work under pressure while maintaining the organizational structure of your workplace.

Prioritize Patients

This may be surprising but when you work in the medical industry, patients are your utmost priority. It doesn’t matter if you are a doctor, assistant, or nurse, you must treat patients above all. When starting out, remember your first responsibility is with patients, not physicians, even if they are the ones paying your salary.

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You have little control over their comfort and mental relaxation. Therefore, you must care for their satisfaction while they are under treatment in your clinic. As they are no less than your patients, you must make them happy. Your supervisors will respect this notion.

Know You Make a Difference

Anyone can learn what a Medical Assistant has to do, but only a few work with the drive to improve the lives of their patients. This is the most sought-after quality in the medical industry; if you possess it, you are halfway to success.

You have to enter the field making wanting to make something more than a paycheck. You have to make a difference to help them while they are sick and afraid/worried.  You are working with people who need support and compassion; this is a major part of your job description.

Be Easy To Work With

The most important advice you will get in every profession is that you need to be teachable. You have learned the basic skills you need to get started, but you can only develop yourself further if you let your supervisors teach you the ropes.

Once you step into the professional realm, you will learn unique practices daily and see the different roles you are supposed to fulfill.  So start with confidence, competence, and the ability to relate to patients.

You need to listen to your medical assistants and learn from the experience; teachability is an actual quality. You also have to talk regularly with your physician, asking for their advice and insight on how to work and improve.

Corey Del Pino
Author
Dean of Academic Programs

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Corey Del Pino attended Northern Arizona University after high school and graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology with a Chemistry Minor in 2012. After attending Mohave Community College and earning her Medical… Read Full Bio