A medical assistant’s cooperation and presence during a surgical procedure is essential in order to provide satisfactory patient care. Although the role of the medical assistant may not shine though as strongly as the physician’s, their subtle presence provide organization in the form of administrative and clinical tasks to facilitate the physician’s demanding profession. During a surgical procedure, such as an incision and drainage of an abscess, the medical assistant is the patient’s first point of contact. The medical assistant’s role in any surgical procedure will begin as the patient schedules an appointment with the providing health care provider.
There are many outpatient surgical procedures and one of them is an incision and drainage
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As a standard precaution against bodily fluids or blood borne pathogens the medical assistant and the doctor would don their personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves, face shield, and gown. Next, the medical assistant will prepare the following materials in preparation of the procedure: 1% or 2% lidocaine in a 10cc syringe/25 gauge needle, skin prep solution, #11 scalpel blade with handle, gauze, hemostat, scissors, iodoform, tape, and culture swab. After the materials have been prepped the doctor will clean the abscess with skin prep and drape the wound with sterile fenestrated drape. Anesthetic in the form of lidocaine with a 10cc syringe and 25-gauge needle will be injected around the abscess. The doctor will allow 3-5 minutes for the anesthetic to take affect before making an incision into the abscess. Once the incision is made the doctor will allow pus to ooze and drain out. While the pus is draining out, the culture swab will be inserted in to the abscess where a culture is taken so the origin of the infection is identified incase further treatment is needed. Using the hemostat the doctor will explore the abscess and continue to soak up the pus with the gauze. With a syringe and normal saline the doctor will irrigate …show more content…
Education of the patient will begin. Depending on the size of the abscess and how extensive the procedure was the patient may need a relative or friend to drive them back home. Not only would the patient need a ride back home, they may need to be watched for 24 hours. As part of pain management pain medication may be given to the patient to decrease pain. Antibiotics may be given to fight or prevent infection caused by the bacteria. The patient will also need to list all medications that they are taking so there will not be any contraindications with the medications that the patient is given. Advise the patient that more than one follow-up appointment will be necessary in order to properly treat the wound. Before the end of the appointment, the medical assistant should give the patient written instructions along with an emergency number and the number to the practice incase the patient has any questions or concerns. Advise the patient to return to the practice if they experience any fever, chills, or the abscess returns. If red streaks appear around the wound tell the patient to call the emergency department immediately. After the the procedure and patient education has been completed, make sure all the step of the procedure has been documented in the patient’s record and all follow-up procedures have been
Physician practices are increasingly using medical assistants in place of nurses, for a variety of reasons and with significant impact on office efficiency. Medical assistants are trained in both clinical and administrative functions, allowing one staff member to do the work of two. These assistants can help manage patient flow by working the front desk, performing some billing functions, and also providing some clinical care. As you consider adding medical assistants to your practice or optimizing the work of the assistants you already have on staff, you might be wondering: What is the clinical scope of practice of
The physician assistant is a team player in the medical world, working daily with surgeons, physicians, therapists, and many other health care professionals. Similar to the job description of physicians, PAs see patients, take medical histories, preform physical exams, make diagnoses, order and interpret tests, and develop treatment plans (Ludwig). A physician assistant, nowadays, may even perform procedures that were once performed exclusively by physicians. Because every PA must have a supervising physician who oversees their work, it is assumed by many that PAs are “assistants to doctors”, however, that is not the case because a vast majority of PAs work independently. The extent of supervision by a physician varies depending on location and branch of medicine. Although, a physician assistant may carry out much of the same roles as a physician would, the amount of schooling required to become a PA is nearly half as many as that of a physician. Physician assistant programs nationwide require an undergraduate degree in one of many sciences, such as biology, and certain
Hinkle, J., Cheever, K., & , (2012). Textbook of medical-surgical nursing. (13 ed., pp. 586-588). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health
Physician assistants (PAs) do many tasks and work in various medically influenced settings. PAs can prescribe medications but may need a physician’s opinion beforehand. They may give treatment in the care of broken bones and administer immunizations. A PA also has to educate patients and family members on how to care for a condition that affects them or the members of their families, such as an asthmatic child (“Physician Assistants.” U.S.). Giving lab tests and taking blood samples are also a part of a PAs job duties. They must record the medical history of the patient. A PA may assist a physician/surgeon in a surgery (“Physician Assistant.” Encyclopedia 14).
Any job in the medical field is great, because it will always be needed no matter what. Doctors, nurses, techs, etc. are all very important and necessary people, but the people behind the scenes are just as important, medical administrative assistants. Being a medical administrative assistant seems awfully difficult, you have all these responsibilities but at the end of the day you’ll have a sense of satisfaction because you may have possibly really helped a patient or family with a serious and hard situation. There are different types or categories of medical administrative assistants, you have the front office, the back office, the clinic setting, private practices, and the floating position. Duties for
My lifetime goal is helping others and I plan to use my career to fulfill it. The classes I’m taking right now and the ones I’m planning to take senior year are classes I believe will influence my decision in my college major/career as well as counting toward my GPA. This will help me get into schools who have medical programs that I’m considering. Also, taking AP classes can help me save money since I can earn college credit. I’m taking all AP classes, and the electives I’m taking have been classes that have helped me consider being in the medical field. I’ve found that over the years, science and math are what I’m doing better in versus history and english. I believe by being in the medical field, I can help others in the best way I can.
Lastly, Medical assistants are of great help to the physicians they work for. They make it possible for the practitioners to be effective in their practice. Just like all the other practitioners in the medical field, the medical assistants are expected to maintain high standards in the field. For the medical assistants this will include acting on the instructions given by the practitioners and adhering to the code of ethics as set by AAMA. The medical assistants are also expected to make sound decisions when faced with medical dilemmas. All this should be focused on giving the patient quality care.
administered to prevent clots and perhaps continues post-op. If such a patient is not given
I know that by doing my job, no matter how different each patient may be, that I have made a difference in someone’s life. I am very content in my job knowing that there is an increasing need in healthcare. With the demand of healthcare today, there will always be a demand for physicians, and with the need of physicians there will always be a need for medical assistants. In this profession the rewards and opportunities will only continue to grow, and there is not a better place to than here in America, because like Ralph Waldo Emerson (journalist, poet, philosopher, and essayist) once said, “America is another name for
During my observership, my clinic intern mentor was Shiyama Hassan. Overall it was an enjoyable, less stressful academic experience.I got a chance to take patient histories, examination and patient’s vital sign monitoring and charting. I didn’t feel much difference in observing my mentor taking the history and when I was taking the history, it could be related to my past experience. However, every time I was curious to know what is happening with the patients and what caused him to seek naturopathic medical advice. During this clinic shadowing, I saw genuine interest of my mentor and supervisor to help patients concerns, unlike to allopathic model of prescribing medication. It helped me to improve my interviewing skills to look root cause for
Medical Administrative Assistants have numerous of duties in an office setting. Medical Administrative Assistants can get a job in a doctor office or a hospital. Medical Assistants work more in the front of office and hospital assisting patients and checking them in. By knowing some Medical Assistants I know some of their duties are: scheduling patients, greeting patients, doing paper work, handling insurance problems or statements, and also supervising entry. Medical Administrative Assistants may be asked to do take the patient height or blood pressure. Medical assistants are sometime asked to buy the medical equipment needed in the office. When needed they may also work as the office manager. They conduct the doctor's schedule and type letters and bills (Occupational Outlook Handbook). Accounting has an enormous role in this field such as handling the insurance procedures and billing statements. Billing statements are responsibilities that a patient has gathered overtime. Having a great attitude is very much needed as a medical assistant because that job is in the customer service field. It is the medical assistant’s duty to take care of the fees in a medical facility therefore, knowing how to do accounting is a must know. Some of the duties involve collecting payments from the patient, tracking records of all the payments collected and filing forms out to take action against patients that have not made payments in a long time or just none at all that is why accounting is very important in this job. Accounting is recording financial relations, storing, organizing, retrieving, and presenting information in numerous reports which all goes back to one of the duties of a medical administration assis...
...tered if needed. The nurse will assess pulse oximetry readings, respiratory rate, and pain level. Pain will be treated with prescribed pain meds, fluids and electrolytes will be given as needed, and other meds such as bronchodilators, antibiotics, and/or antivirals will likely be prescribed. Pneumonia is very common illness but it can be fatal if not treated, so education regarding prevention and treatment is very important. Pneumococcal and influenza vaccines are available for prevention. Healthy eating and exercise are great ways to stay healthy and build a strong immune system. Proper fluid intake is very important, at least 6 to 8 glasses a day. Hand washing is the most effective way to stop the spread of infection.
Class I- clean- an uninfected operative wound in which no inflammation is encountered and the respiratory, alimentary, genital, or uninfected urinary tract is not entered. In addition, clean wounds are primarily closed and, if necessary, drained with closed drainage. Operative incision wounds that follow non penetrating trauma should be included in this category. If they meet the criteria Infection rate for class 1 wounds is 1%-5%. There is no drainage necessary these wounds are common in eye surgeries, small skin incisions, and vascular and neurological procedures. To be considered a clean wound, the procedure must consist of no pre-ruptures of membranes prior to the surgery (CDC Guideline 1999)
Our approach in managing wounds was far from being optimal in our own setting. After having read the article of Sibbald et al (1) and assisting to presentations during the first residential week-end, our approach at St. Mary 's Hospital Center 's Family Medicine Clinic must change. We were not classifying wounds as healable, maintenance or non-healable. We were always considering the wounds in our practice as healable despite considering the system 's restraints or the patients ' preferences. In the following lines, I will define and summarize the methods one should use in order to initial management of wounds and how to integrate it better to our site. The first goal we need to set is to determine its ability to heal. In order to ascertain if a wound is healable, maintenance or a non-healable wound.
Although the importance of aseptic technique has been continually reiterated, I have realised its substantial role in the perioperative environment. Aseptic technique refers to the practice of creating and maintaining a sterile environment used for sterile procedures (Laws, 2010a). This is incredibly important as repetitive minor breaches of the sterile environment is one of the major factors increasing the risk of surgical site infection (Harrop et al., 2012).