Medical Assistant-AAS Degree

The Medical Assistant program at SBI-Melville is designed to prepare students to assist medical providers by performing administrative duties and basic clinical duties in an office and/or medical center. The core curriculum covers a variety of subjects, including medical practice, medical law and ethics, medical communications, medical records, insurance, patient preparation, and basic laboratory procedures and tests. The courses are grouped around knowledge and skills required for administrative and clinical medical assisting; however, courses are not necessarily offered in the sequences in which they appear in the catalog. Also, students will typically, but not always, be taught by more than one instructor during their program of study. Students are required to complete a supervised clinical externship at a medical facility that includes competencies, logs and evaluations completed by the student. At the completion of the program, graduates who have diligently attended class and their externship, studied, and practiced their skills should have the necessary skills to seek entry-level employment as medical assistants.

The Medical Assistant program at SBI-Melville is not programmatically accredited by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES) or the Commission on Accreditation for Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP). Therefore, graduates of the program are not eligible to take the Certified Medical Assistant (CMA) examinations offered by the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA). Graduates are able to take the Registered Medical Assistant (RMA) examination offered by American Medical Technologists (AMT). These credentials are nationally recognized voluntary certifications that could enhance employment opportunities. Registration and certification requirements for taking and passing these examinations are not controlled by SBI-Melville but by outside agencies and are subject to change by the agency without notice. Therefore, SBI-Melville cannot guarantee that graduates will be eligible to take certification or registration exams at all or at any specific time, regardless of their eligibility status upon enrollment.

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