Thousands of medical assistants across the country will be celebrated between October 17 and 21 in observance of Medical Assistants Recognition Week (MARWeek). Held every year during the third full week in October, MARWeek lauds the contributions of the profession at the heart of health care.
The American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) offers materials online to help celebrate the week. A feature article, poster, observance suggestions, and the official MARWeek logo are all available for download through the AAMA website.
Medical assisting is one of the nation’s careers growing much faster than average for all occupations, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Medical assistants work in outpatient health care settings. Employers are seeking and recruiting these allied health professionals because of their uniquely diverse clinical and administrative patient-centered training.
The Certified Medical Assistant (AAMA)’or CMA (AAMA)’credential represents a medical assistant who has been credentialed through the Certifying Board (CB) of the AAMA.
The CB of the AAMA was awarded accreditation by the International Accreditation Service (IAS) under ISO 17024, the global benchmark for personnel certification bodies, thus ensuring the CMA (AAMA) represents a world class certification.
The CMA (AAMA) Certification Program remains accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA)’an accrediting arm of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE). Consequently, the CB and its CMA (AAMA) Certification Program are the only medical assisting certifying body and certification program (respectively) that hold accreditation under both IAS and the NCCA.
A rigorous credential, the CMA (AAMA) also is the only certification that requires postsecondary education. Only candidates who graduate from an accredited postsecondary medical assisting program are eligible to sit for the CMA (AAMA) Certification Examination. The CMA (AAMA) must recertify every five years. The National Board of Medical Examiners’responsible for many national examinations for physicians’serves as test consultant for the examination. As a result, the reliability and validity of the CMA (AAMA) credential are of the highest order.
Certification status is a matter of public record and may be released. Every day the AAMA responds to more than 100 employer requests for CMA (AAMA) certification verification’for both current and potential employees.
The mission of the American Association of Medical Assistants is to provide the medical assistant professional with education, certification, credential acknowledgment, networking opportunities, scope-of-practice protection, and advocacy for quality patient-centered health care.
