Medical Administrative/Executive Assistant and Medical Secretary

What Medical Administrative/Executive Assistant and Medical Secretary Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, medical administrative/executive assistant and medical secretary majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Medical Administrative/Executive Assistant and Medical Secretary Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in medical administrative/executive assistant and medical secretary should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.

Skills for Medical Administrative/Executive Assistant and Medical Secretary Majors

The following list of skills has been highlighted as some of the most essential for careers related to medical administrative/executive assistant and medical secretary:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.

Abilities for Medical Administrative/Executive Assistant and Medical Secretary Majors

As a medical administrative/executive assistant and medical secretary major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Medical Administrative/Executive Assistant and Medical Secretary

Some degrees associated with medical administrative/executive assistant and medical secretary may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for medical administrative/executive assistant and medical secretary careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	24.4%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	42.3%
Some College Courses	25.0%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	9.8%

Online Medical Administrative/Executive Assistant and Medical Secretary Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	175	32
Certificate (2-4 Years)	3	0
Associate’s Degree	187	55
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Medical Administrative/Executive Assistant and Medical Secretary

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to medical administrative/executive assistant and medical secretary.

Major	Number of Grads
Health Care Management	29,812
Health Information/Medical Records Technology/Technician	10,462
Medical Insurance Coding Specialist/Coder	9,463
Medical Insurance Specialist/Medical Biller	9,252
Medical Office Assistant/Specialist	4,140
Hospital & Health Care Facilities Administration/Management	3,686
Health Information Management	2,960
Medical Office Management/Administration	2,810
Other Health & Medical Administrative Services	2,008
Medical/Health Management & Clinical Assistant/Specialist	1,278
Medical Reception/Receptionist	913
Clinical Research Coordinator	328
Healthcare Innovation	197
Long Term Care Administration/Management	182
Health Unit Coordinator/Ward Clerk	140
Medical Office Computer Specialist/Assistant	114
Regulatory Science/Affairs	94
Medical Transcription/Transcriptionist	79
Health Unit Manager/Ward Supervisor	35
Medical Staff Services Technology/Technician	32
Healthcare Information Privacy Assurance and Security	8
Disease Registry Data Management	6
Health/Medical Claims Examiner	4

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020

More about our data sources and methodologies.