In this Article
By: Kendall Upton
Professional insights: Michelle Keim
Whether you’re thinking about becoming a medical assistant or you’re already enrolled in a medical assistant program, you’re probably familiar with the clinical externship. This is the part of your education where you move out of the classroom and into the real world to apply what you’ve been learning with real patients.
As one of the most important aspects of your medical assistant training, a little preparation can go a long way to help ensure your clinical externship is a successful first step within your career. Here’s what you need to know.
What is a medical assistant clinical externship?
The clinical externship—which some programs may refer to as a practicum—is a hands-on training period within medical assistant programs where students get to practice what they’re learning in real-world healthcare settings. Though the externship experience can vary from program to program, they typically match medical assisting students with a local healthcare facility where a preceptor supervises them directly.
“Our program specifically requires 170 in-person clinical externship hours, but each program can vary a little bit,” said Michelle Keim, Medical Assisting Program Director at Indian River State College in Florida’s Port St. Lucie.
For a standard nine-month medical assistant certificate program, the clinical externship typically lasts anywhere from three to six months depending on the program’s structure.
Any medical assisting program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) or the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES) will include a clinical externship of some kind. Accrediting organizations ensure that the program meets rigorous academic standards, and attending an accredited program makes it easier to qualify for industry certifications like the Certified Medical Assistant (CMA) from the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA).
What the medical assistant clinical externship is like
The externship experience can vary widely depending on how a program schedules and coordinates it. The length of the externship, the number of hours per week and where you’re placed can all modify the experience.
That said, most medical assisting programs format their clinical externships in one of two ways:
Keim’s program resembles the former, which tends to be most common among programs. On top of their clinical externship, she said that students have a class once per week to review how their training is going, prepare for certification and practice key skills they may need help with.
“Essentially, I keep in contact with the site managers and the preceptors throughout the process just to gauge how the students are doing,” Keim said. “The biggest thing that we try to stress to the students is that we’re not just going to send you out to your site and say good luck and then we don’t see you again until you’re done. It’s a very, very involved process. I don’t want any surprises, and I don’t want the students to feel like they can’t talk to us about concerns or grievances, or even great things that are happening. We want to keep that open communication going.”
Where you’ll work
Clinical externships typically occur at a local healthcare facility, such as a physician office, outpatient clinic or hospital.
“With our program, we actually work with a variety of private practices in our surrounding counties because I have students from all over. We do work very closely with the Cleveland Clinic as well. They’ve been a huge part of our externship process because they’ve got a plethora of offices and specialties, and they’re very accommodating when it comes to getting students in,” Keim said.
Schools usually try to place students in a setting and specialty that interests them, but this depends on the availability and demand for certain placements.
“The way that our program works is we start evaluating the students from the very beginning, and we like to get their input if there’s a specific area or specialty that they’re interested in,” Keim said. “Sometimes students have a very specific goal. For example, I’ve got a student this term who from the very beginning said, ‘I want to go into cardiology,’ and it was very clear that’s what she wants to do. But a lot of students also have no idea, so we really try to take that into consideration if they do have a preference.”
…we start evaluating the students from the very beginning, and we like to get their input if there’s a specific area or specialty that they’re interested in.
If students aren’t sure yet what kind of setting or specialty they want to work in, Keim said, they may place them in a general urgent care setting. Keim also said the Cleveland Clinic sometimes allows students to float between different specialties as well.
What you’ll do
The purpose of the medical assistant clinical externship is to provide students with the opportunity to practice what they’ve been learning in the classroom. For some students, this may be their first time providing direct patient care. Though their exact duties depend on their facility’s needs, students get to practice real clinical duties such as:
Tips to prepare for your clinical externship
The biggest piece of advice? Treat the experience like a real job.
Besides the fact that you must complete the clinical externship to graduate, you want to make a positive first impression. The connections you make—your preceptors, managers, coworkers and more—could become valuable additions to your professional network. Many healthcare facilities may even be willing to hire you after you complete the program.
Get familiar with your externship site
Just like when applying for any other job, it’s important to do some research on who you’ll be working for.
“One of the biggest ways that students can prepare for their externship is making themselves familiar with their site,” Keim said. “We really stress to them that you need to think of this as if you were going to a job interview. You want to show up and know about the clinic, the doctors, the types of services that they provide and understand what your responsibilities are.”
One of the biggest ways that students can prepare for their externship is making themselves familiar with their site.
Keim said that they encourage their healthcare sites to do an interview with the student beforehand, even if the program has already placed the student there.
“We make sure that they actually meet with them first and have an interview with their preceptor or with an administrator before they even start so that there’s no question on any of those expectations,” Keim said.
Review and practice
Before and throughout the medical assisting clinical externship, students should review their coursework and brush up on their practical skills as much as they can. Take an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses, and tap into your school’s resources to get help with areas you feel could use some more practice.
Hone your communication skills and professional etiquette
Whether you’ve had jobs in the past or this is your first professional work experience, Keim said it’s important to practice your communication and critical thinking skills.
“Honestly, that’s kind of hard to do independently. You don’t really learn that until you’re actually doing it, working face to face with patients. But we really try to make sure that students are prepared, especially for communication,” Keim said. “We have a lot of young students who may or may not have had any work experience, so trying to build that skill set for them can be a little challenging at times.”
Here are just a few professional communication tips to consider:
- Be a good active listener when others are speaking and ask clarifying questions to ensure understanding.
- If you’re stuck or unsure about something, try to figure things out on your own before asking for help—but don’t shy away from asking questions when you really need to.
- Err on the side of over communicating instead of under communicating.
- Be aware of any nonverbal communication cues you could be sending through your body language, tone and facial expressions.
- Practice empathy and respect with patients and colleagues alike.
Final say
During a medical assistant clinical externship, you get to apply the clinical and administrative skills you’ve been honing in class within a real healthcare environment. It’s a chance to really demonstrate what you’ve learned and transition from theoretical to practical knowledge. Whether it’s examining patients, assisting with procedures or updating patient records, you won’t just be learning how to be a medical assistant—you’ll actually be doing it.
To be successful, students should take some time to learn about their externship sites, review their coursework and above all, prepare for the experience like it’s a real job.
