Medical Assisting, A.A.S.

Program Description

The Medical Assisting Program prepares students for employment and career in health care industries, such as physician’s offices, outpatient clinics, in-patient administration, government, and health insurance industries. The curriculum is designed to provide didactic, laboratory, and externship learning experiences where students develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform medical billing and coding, patient scheduling, data entry into the electronic medical record, electrocardiogram and cardiology diagnostic testing, phlebotomy procedures, basic laboratory tests, and maintain overall daily operations in a clinical setting.  Medical assistants are the only multi-skilled allied health professional that is professionally trained to work in ambulatory settings.

Our primary goal is to prepare competent entry-level medical assistants in the cognitive (knowledge), psychomotor (skills), and affective (behavior) learning domains (MAERB, 2019).

Individuals who maintain a current Registered Medical Assistant (AMT) or Certified Medical Assistant (AAMA) credential may be awarded 32 credits toward the completion of the Medical Assisting Associate of Applied Science degree at PGCC. Contact alliedheathandnursingoffice@pgcc.edu for information.

Program Outcomes

Graduates of the Medical Assisting A.A.S. will be able to:

• Demonstrate professional and therapeutic communication skills
• Utilize medical terminology as related to body functions
• Perform administrative functions in an outpatient setting
• Perform clinical functions/procedures in the outpatient setting
• Describe the implications of health law in the clinical setting
• Demonstrate the standards of care for the medical assisting profession

General Education Courses

The list of general education courses appears in the General Education List . Some programs recommend or require specific courses to fulfill general education requirements. Please check your program’s sequence of study for this information.

Sequence of Study - Medical Assisting A.A.S.

Below are the required courses for your program arranged in a suggested sequence. Please note that the sequence does not  include developmental coursework. See Academic Preparation  for the developmental course sequence if applicable to you.

Required Courses (in expected order)

• MAS-1100 Systems Terminology Credits: 3 (Program Requirement)
• MAS-1050 Law and Ethics for Allied Health Credits: 3 (Program Requirement)
• MAS-1060 Introduction to Computerized Medical Practice Credits: 3 (Program Requirement)
• MAS-2010 Administrative Medical Assisting I Credits: 3 (Program Requirement)
• MAS-2110 Administrative Medical Assisting II Credits: 4 (Program Requirement)
• MAS-2300 Pharmacology for Allied Health Credits: 4 (Program Requirement)
• MAS-2020 Clinical Procedures I Credits: 4 (Program Requirement; Critical Course)
• MAS-2050 Clinical Procedures II Credits: 4 (Program Requirement)
• MAS-2070 Clinical Procedures III Credits: 4 (Program Requirement)
• MAS-2040 Professional Seminar Credits: 1 (Program Requirement)
• MAS-2060 Medical Assisting Practicum Credits: 3 (Program Requirement)

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• PAS-1000 First Year Experience Credits: 1 (Institutional Requirement)
• EGL-1010 Composition I: Expository Writing Credits: 3 (English General Education Requirement)
• MAT-1130 Mathematical Ideas Credits: 3 (Mathematics Gen. Ed. Requirement)
• BIO-2050 Human Anatomy & Physiology I Credits: 4 (Science w/ Lab General Education Elective; Critical Course)
• PSY-1010 General Psychology Credits: 3 (Social Science General Education Requirement)

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• EGL-1340 Writing About Technical Topics Credits: 3 (English General Education Elective) or
• EGL-1100 Composition II: Writing About Issues and Ideas Credits: 3 (English General Education Elective) or
• EGL-1320 Composition II: Writing for Business Credits: 3 (English General Education Elective)

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• BIO-2060 Anatomy and Physiology II Credits: 4 (Program Requirement)
• COM-1090 Interpersonal Communication Credits: 3 (Arts/Humanities General Education Requirement)

Program Total: 60 Credits

MAS-1060 fulfills Computer Literacy requirement.

Check BIO-2050  for eligibility requirements.

Transferability

Credit earned at any public institution in the state shall be transferable to any other institution if the:

• Credit is from a college or university parallel course or program;
• Grades in the block of courses transferred average 2.00 or higher; and
• Acceptance of the credit is consistent with the policies of the receiving institution governing students following the  same program. Refer to ARTSYS at artweb.usmd.edu and the receiving institution’s catalog to select transferable courses.

Need Help?

For help selecting an academic program or courses, consider using Career Coach, available at www.pgcc.edu/go/careercoach.