What Every Medical Assisting Student Should Know About Externships

Many medical assisting schools offer an “externship” or “internship” as part of their program. A medical assisting externship is an opportunity for students to temporarily work in a health care facility alongside medical professionals.

Externships are typically unpaid, but it provides students with hands-on training and real-world experience within a medical facility. Typical externships can last six to twelve weeks, depending on the arrangement the medical assisting school has with the employer. The length of the externship might also depend on state regulations for externships through career schools.

Since not all medical assisting schools offer externships, it’s important to find this out as you explore different career schools in your area. Externships are not vital to receive quality medial assisting training, but it does drastically help in finding a job upon graduation.

Externships Provide Excellent Medical Assisting Experience

One of the best reasons to join a medical assisting school that offers externships is because of the real-world work experience you’ll gain. No doubt, you’ll probably get a lot of hands-on experience in the classroom, but nothing compares to actually performing those skills on the job as a medical assistant.

In class, you’ll practice your medical assisting skills on other students, so there’s a lot less pressure to get everything perfect. But the externship will help boost your confidence as you practice those same skills with real patients (under the supervision of a medial professional). And you just can’t get that type of experience in a classroom.

Externships Can Lead To Job Offers Or Job Recommendations

Another benefit of externships is that the medical professionals you work with can be your ally when you seek employment.

Whether you receive a job offer at the externship site, or whether those medical professionals write you a letter of recommendation, the externship experience is extremely valuable. There’s no other way to gain real experience and a job recommendation in such a short timeframe.

In fact, many medical assisting students are encouraged to keep in contact with the key personnel they worked with at the externship site because those professionals could be a great source for finding a medical assisting job down the road.

Externships Usually Occur At End Of Medical Assisting Program

Most medical assisting schools offer externships to students toward the end of their program. Externships are best experienced at the end of a program so that students can test the skills they learned in class.

To sum, externships will provide you with invaluable experience and training you can’t receive anywhere else. Externships will also provide job recommendations or even a job offer if you do a good job.

Start researching schools in your area now.