Pediatric medical assistant help doctors communicate with patients. Various types of medical assistants work in healthcare facilities with specific roles, such as those who assist in OBGYN, pediatric, and chiropractic practices. You may have heard about pediatric medical assistants and want to learn more about them.
This article explains all the important information about pediatric medical assistants. We talk about what they do, what they are in charge of, how much they get paid, and their job opportunities.
What Does A Pediatric Medical Assistant Mean?
Pediatricians often take care of babies, kids, and teenagers. A Pediatric Medical Assistant helps the doctor during their work.
Pediatric Medical Assistants may need to do both medical tasks and office tasks. You can get a job in pediatric offices anywhere in the country, and pediatric assistants often become close with the families (especially the children) they assist.
See: Medical Assistant Work Hours
Pediatric Medical Assistant: Responsibilities and Roles
A pediatric medical assistant does the same jobs as regular medical assistants, but they work with children instead of adults.
Pediatric medical assistants help doctors take care of babies, kids, and teenagers.
Pediatric Medical Assistant And It’s Clinical Duties
Pediatric medical assistants do both clinical and administrative tasks in a healthcare setting. They have important clinical duties that involve:
Collection of samples:
Medical assistants often have to gather and collect urine, stool, and blood samples for additional testing and analysis.
Record vital signs:
Pediatric medical assistants must be ready to take care of toddlers and children who may wiggle or be frightened, while checking their important health measurements. So, they have to be good with kids and make them feel comfortable.
Assist with examinations:
Pediatric medical assistants often have to help doctors more because children usually can’t understand and do what they’re told.
Pediatric medical assistants can assist doctors by helping to distract or position the patient during their examination.
Comfort patients:
Children are usually afraid and worried when they go into a doctor’s office or clinic for kids and they might be restless. Medical assistants need to make patients feel comfortable and secure in the clinic.
Vaccination:
Some states don’t let medical assistants give injections to patients, but pediatric medical assistants sometimes help doctors by giving kids their required vaccinations.
Measurement assistance:
Pediatric medical assistants need to write down the measurements of toddlers or infants, like their weight, size of their head, and height. If there are any problems with these measurements, they have to tell the doctor.
Pediatric Medical Assistant: Administrative Duties
In addition to their clinical responsibilities, pediatric medical assistants also have to do administrative tasks to help the healthcare setting run smoothly. In simple words, administrative duties usually include-
Attends to phone calls:
Parents often make lots of phone calls to a doctor’s office when they need help with taking care of their children. Pediatric medical assistants need to answer scheduled and unscheduled phone calls and also make appointments.
Schedule appointments:
Pediatric medical assistants are needed to organize the appointments and timetable of their healthcare facility. This helps the office run smoothly and provides the best possible care to patients.
This often involves making appointments with the patient’s parents or guardians and making sure that everything is happening on schedule at the office or clinic.
Growth records:
It is important to keep an eye on how babies and children grow and change because it helps us spot any health problems. Pediatric medical assistants need to keep track of a child’s growth as they get older.
Eyes on reminders:
Parents with babies and young children often feel incredibly stressed and swamped. Medical assistants are encouraged to go above and beyond by reminding parents about refilling their prescriptions, scheduling future appointments, and checking in after a major injury or illness.
Vaccine schedules:
Pediatric medical assistants need to regularly check their patients’ medical records to see if any vaccinations are overdue. They must then inform the doctors and parents if any vaccinations are missing.
Payments:
Medical assistants typically take care of payments, help parents with bills and insurance claims, and send payment reminders when needed.
Other things that a pediatric medical assistant might have to do are tasks that the doctors tell them to do.
Pediatric Medical Assistants: Where Do They Work?
Because there are more and more people, there is a big need for pediatric medical assistants all across the country. These medical assistants usually work in a place that is kid-friendly and need to be ready to deal with any problems that may come up while taking care of children at their job.
Pediatric medical assistants need to be prepared to engage with children by using colorful things, movies, music, and toys for them.
Pediatric medical assistants usually work in doctors’ offices that specialize in treating children and in clinics that offer care for the whole family. Some medical assistants also work in places like hospitals, nursing homes, and even people’s homes to take care of children with special needs.
Pediatric Medical Assistant: Key Skills Needed
A regular children’s doctor assistant should have the usual abilities that all doctor assistants should have. They also need to learn some helpful skills for dealing with kids. Here are some extra abilities that you may need.
Medicinal knowledge:
All healthcare workers need to understand medical words and be ready for emergencies.
CPR:
When a medical assistant wants to get a job, they usually need to have CPR certification.
Organizational skills:
Pediatric medical assistants need to manage the clinic’s busy schedule and make sure appointments are organized. They also have to deal with difficult or upset children. To do their jobs well, pediatric medical assistants need to be good at organizing things.
Patience:
Going to the doctor can be scary for children. They often feel anxious and not safe in that kind of place. Pediatric medical assistants need to be patient when they interact with children and be able to handle tantrums without getting upset themselves.
Computer literate:
One important job of a pediatric medical assistant is to keep electronic health records for each patient. So, you need to know basic computer skills to do these tasks well.
Creativity:
Working with children in pediatric settings can be very unpredictable. Pediatric medical assistants need to think creatively to solve problems that are specific to each child’s needs.
Pediatric Medical Assistant: Job Projection And Salary
Generally, there are currently around 330 million people living in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says that on average, pediatric or general medical assistants make about $37,000 a year. A pediatric medical assistant and a general medical assistant earn about the same amount of money.
The BLS also says that there are good job prospects for pediatric medical assistants in the next few years. This position is expected to have the most job opportunities compared to other jobs. It is predicted to grow by around 16% by the year 2030.
