What Is The Experience Of A Medical Assistant

For this assignment I had the opportunity to interview a medical assistant, Brandy Scott. She currently works for the University Physician Group in Dearborn Michigan. Her contact number is (313) 429-7859. She has been in the medical field for more than 5 years and when asked to describe her overall experience, she says that it has been very rewarding. Before beginning the interview I explained some of the main points that have interested me from the course thus far and based my questions off of those points. The first group of question that I asked had a lot to do with the communication barriers that she faces when working with her patients in comparison to some of the barriers that she has seen between the doctors and their patients. She …show more content…
In most cases doctors are expected to limit the amount of time spent with their patients to a minimum. In order to do this doctors have to control the conversation and they do so by using assertive behavior and direct the conversation in a way that gives the patient less time to cover all of their concerns. In our textbook, chapter 3 explains that both the patient and doctors are known to show assertive behaviors; but when the communication style is physician-centered the doctor is known to be more assertive (Du Pre ', 2014, p. 54). Regardless of how the doctor or physician goes about limiting the time that is spent with their patient, by not taking the time out to make sure that they have a clear understanding of what is going on they are risking the relationship with the patient. When the patient feels rushed they will not want to disclose all of their concerns or and symptoms out of fear that they will be seen as bothersome by the doctor. When a doctor or health care provider takes the proper time out to get to know the patient and listen to their questions or concerns they alleviate the possibility for future visits for the same …show more content…
She told me that she did not have to complete any required courses, which did not surprise me. Even though communication plays a huge role in the medical field I personally do not think that it the main priority when it comes to training future doctors and nurses. I think communication is apart of a “hidden curriculum”. Chapter 5 defines hidden curriculum as the attitudes and practices that others model, even though they don 't explicitly teach them (DuPre ', 2014, p. 101). The main part of the learning process in the medical field is memorizing the human body systems and medical terms while taking courses in med school. A bigger part of learning is taught once they are put out there in the “real world”. Students are learning from the actual doctors in nurses in the field and if the students see the professionals display poor communication skills, that is what they will intern do once they are on their own. This can be avoided if there were communication courses that taught students the proper skills and gave them information about how to be empathetic towards their