It is not unusual in modern times for people to change careers at least once during their working years. Some people lose their jobs and pursue a second career in order to find a job, while others simply become unhappy with what they are doing and wish to try something else. The American Association of Retired Persons, or AARP, lists medical assistant as one of their 50 jobs for an encore career for people over 50. Here are five reasons that medical assistant is an excellent choice for a second career.
Break Away From the Desk
Decades spent sitting behind a desk can leave anyone ready for a career that involves spending time on your feet. A medical assistant typically spends the workday moving around a medical office or hospital. As a medical assistant, you will interact with patients as well as doctors and nurses instead of spending your day staring at a computer screen.
Medical care is needed by all kinds of people in all of life's circumstances. This means that you will have a wide range of choices once you are ready to take a job. Choose to work specifically with the children, the elderly, patients with heart disease, people requiring surgery, women having babies or many other groups of people. Take a job in a medical office, emergency clinic or hospital.
Give Back While You Earn
Many standard jobs focus on making money for someone else rather than doing something that will actually make a difference in the world. As a medical assistant, you will impact peoples' lives on a daily basis and truly have a part in making someone feel better. You could even provide education or medical services that will change someone's life. That's a career you can feel good about while you collect a paycheck at the same time.
Use Your Skills in Volunteer Work
Once you become a medical assistant, you will have knowledge and skills that will allow you to be a valued volunteer in a low income medical facility or even a mission team overseas. You can also put your new medical education to work as a foster parent for special needs children or a companion to the elderly or homebound. Having a medical background makes you a valuable asset in all kinds of volunteer settings.
Care for Family
As a medical assistant, you will be uniquely qualified to help provide day to day care to family members who are ill or disabled. You will have the confidence and knowledge to lead the rest of your family in caring for a loved one or to provide that care yourself. You will also be better able to understand what doctors and hospital staff are telling you about your family member's condition, diagnosis and treatment.
Springboard to Nursing
Pursing an education as a medical assistant is one way to break into the medical field and determine if a career in nursing is right for you. The training to become a medical assistant does not take a long term commitment and can be accomplished relatively quickly. You will have the opportunity to take a close look at the medical field and truly understand what nurses do each day. If you do decide to go to nursing school, you will already have some skills and education to build on.
Becoming trained as a medical assistant is a great way to pursue a second, or even third, career. You will gain confidence and experience in the medical field that you can take into other areas of your life as well as spend each day actively doing something that you can feel good about while you earn money.
