Medical Assistant job description for veterans

Two Army specialties map onto this job in O*NET's Military Crosswalk: 68P Radiology Specialist and 68G Patient Administration Specialist, one from the clinical side of a treatment facility and one from the records side. The civilian role runs both. A medical assistant takes vitals and histories, prepares patients for the physician, draws blood and gives injections as directed, and also schedules, codes, and keeps the chart. About 56 percent work in physicians' offices, so the hours are usually weekdays rather than a shift rotation. Across 817,870 jobs, the May 2025 median was $45,690, with the bottom tenth under $36,050 and the top tenth above $59,310.

Core Duties and Responsibilities

Two things repeat all day and neither is glamorous: interviewing the patient and measuring vital signs, weight, and height, and cleaning and sterilizing instruments and disposing of contaminated supplies. Recording history and test results in the chart and explaining procedures, medications, diets, and the physician's instructions come next. Room work fills the middle of the day: preparing and cleaning exam rooms, showing patients in, collecting and logging blood and tissue specimens, handing instruments during a procedure, removing sutures, changing dressings, and running routine lab tests. Phones, insurance forms, and refill authorizations to pharmacies fill the gaps.

Common Skills and Technologies

Nothing technical outranks the ability to read a patient, and it is the practical kind: noticing someone is frightened, catching the symptom they mention on the way out the door, and explaining a procedure so it lands. The record system is the line worth putting on a resume: employers name Epic Systems, eClinicalWorks, and MEDITECH, and Epic is the one they ask for most. QuickBooks turns up on the billing end of the same desk.

Education, Training, and Career Path

A postsecondary certificate is the usual way in and one of the shortest formal routes to clinical patient contact. Nearly half the field came in that way, about a fifth on high school alone, and roughly one in six with a bachelor's degree. What follows the certificate is a year or two of learning beside experienced staff. Certification is where reported titles split, into Certified Medical Assistant and Registered Medical Assistant.

Sources: O*NET 30.0, 31-9092.00 Medical Assistants, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/31-9092.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 31-9092, https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes319092.htm.