Medical Assistant Hiring vs Reskilling: Which Is Better?
The demand for skilled medical assistants (MAs) is projected to increase 14% between 2022 and 2032 — nearly five times the average growth rate for all occupations combined — resulting in the creation of nearly 106,000 new positions.1 This presents healthcare leaders with a critical decision: should they reskill their current workforce to meet this demand or hire and train new employees? Here we discuss the pros and cons of each, also providing an overview of medical assistant training options.
Benefits of Medical Assistant Reskilling
Reskilling provides current employees with the training and skills needed to perform a different role. Healthcare positions that could serve as entry-level rungs on the career ladder for medical assistants include phlebotomists, home health aides, patient care technicians, and medical records specialists.
Offering staff in these types of positions medical assistant training provides organizations with several benefits, some of which include:
The Retention of Knowledge
With experience comes knowledge. Choosing to reskill current workers for medical assistant roles allows organizations the ability to retain the knowledge attained by existing team members. This includes their knowledge of healthcare processes in general, as well as those specific to the organization itself.
Ease of Staffing Shortages
Employees who are reskilled or cross-trained can perform the duties of both their prior and current positions. This enables them to fill either role as needed, which can ease the effects of worker shortages in those areas until more staff are hired.
Improved Employee Engagement
When employees are engaged, their performance improves, they stay with the organization longer, and they’re less likely to face burnout.3 Providing current employees with the opportunity to learn new skills can help them stay excited about their healthcare career.
Future Proofing the Organization
The healthcare industry is constantly evolving as new technologies and treatments are pursued. Offering current staff access to medical assistant training helps them develop the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively work with newer equipment, healthcare approaches, and procedures.
Advantages of Hiring New Medical Assistants
Another way to bolster medical assistant staff is to hire and train new employees. This approach also has advantages, such as:
An Augmented Workforce
Worker shortages are one of the top healthcare industry challenges today,4 leaving some organizations with not enough staff to reskill. Hiring new employees enables you to expand your workforce in order to meet the medical assistant demand.
Gain Desired Skills or Certifications
If you want medical assistants with specific skills or certifications, and your current workforce lacks them, you can set hiring parameters to include these qualifications. This ensures that your medical assistant workforce meets the standards you’ve set.
Access to Fresh Ideas
Each worker has their own specific experiences and ideas. Bringing in new staff provides organizations with access to more individuals who can share what they’ve learned and contribute new ideas for improving departmental processes and advancing the workforce.
Increased Diversity
Hiring new medical assistants also makes it possible for healthcare organizations to create a more diverse workforce. Workplace diversity fosters enhanced creativity, open communication, stronger working relationships, and more effective decision-making.6
Medical Assistant Reskilling or Hiring: Which Is Best for You?
With both options offering benefits, it can be difficult to determine the best approach for your healthcare organization. Considering these factors can help when making your decision:
- Current staffing situation. A survey of 1,005 healthcare facilities revealed that 85% faced a shortage of allied healthcare workers.7 If your organization is experiencing the same, you may not have an adequate number of staff available to reskill, making medical assistant hiring a more viable option.
- Worker interest. Some workers are content in their current positions while others desire advancement. Gen Z workers are most likely to want to learn and grow (53%), but many Millennials, Gen X, and baby boomers (37%) want the same.8 Identifying your staff’s interest in reskilling can help determine whether this is the route to pursue.
- Access to trained medical assistants. Forty-four percent of medical group practices reported that medical assistant positions were the most difficult to fill.9 If you’re also struggling to recruit trained medical assistants, reskilling may be a better approach.
- Associated costs. Medical assistant reskilling programs are an investment, but companies can also spend thousands of dollars when hiring new staff.10 Calculate the costs of each approach to determine the difference. One may be more feasible with your hiring and/or reskilling budget.
- Time investment. Look at your current processes to determine how much time will it take you to reskill current staff versus the time investment necessary to hire, onboard, and train new employees. If you have an urgent need for medical assistants, reskilling may enable you to fill these roles quicker since you get to bypass recruiting and onboarding processes.
Medical Assistant Training Options
No matter which path you decide to take, providing workers access to a medical assistant training program is a good next step. This training is critical when reskilling but can also help healthcare organizations enhance the skill sets in workers newly hired to fill these roles.
You have a few options for providing medical assistant training. One is to create or acquire an education entity and provide the training yourself, a second is to develop programs with an existing postsecondary education provider, and a third is to partner with another entity to administer specific programs.11
Creating or acquiring an educational institution can be both costly and time intensive, making these important considerations if taking this route. Developing new training programs can also require a major time investment, even if undertaken with an existing education provider. Plus, some healthcare organizations have no desire to take on the task of developing a completely new training program.
The third option — partnering with a provider to administer training — offers organizations access to an already-created medical assistant training program. This negates the time needed to research and develop an effective training series, allowing for swifter program implementation. This can be critical for organizations facing worker shortage issues, also providing a solution for those with skills gaps.
Nasium Training Is Your Medical Assistant Training Partner
Nasium Training offers a 24-week Medical Assistant training series that includes in-person clinical instruction. This series can help reskill current staff or serve as training for newly hired employees and includes:
- 24/7 access to online curriculum
- Live virtual clinical lessons
- Lab kits for at-home practice
Our Medical Assistant training covers need-to-know topics such as human anatomy and disease processes, medical assisting foundations, and administrative and clinical skills. It also prepares students for the Certified Clinical Medical Assistant (CCMA) exam, even including the exam fee.
For workers already trained to perform a medical assistant role but lacking certification, Nasium Training also offers a 2-week course designed to prepare learners for the CCMA certification exam. This course uses an interactive approach and reinforces learners’ knowledge in areas covered on the CCMA exam, such as medical terminology, clinical procedures, diagnostic tests, and patient interaction. It also includes the CCMA exam fee.
To learn more about the benefits of making Nasium Training your medical assistant training partner, contact us today. Whether you decide to reskill current employees or hire new, we look forward to helping you ensure that your medical assistant staff have the education and skills necessary to perform their healthcare roles!
1 Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook. Medical Assistants. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/medical-assistants.htm
2 Rodriguez HP, et al. Primary Care Practice Characteristics Associated with Medical Assistant Staffing Ratios. Ann Fam Med. https://www.annfammed.org/content/22/3/233.abstract
3 Stein D, et al. How Companies Can Improve Employee Engagement Right Now. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/10/how-companies-can-improve-employee-engagement-right-now
4 McKinsey & Company. 2024 Health Systems Outlook. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare/our-insights/2024-health-systems-outlook-a-host-of-challenges-ahead
5 Harper PG, et al. Team-based care. J Interprofess Care. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/13561820.2018.1538107
6 Herrity J. 20 Benefits of Having a Diverse Workforce (with Definition). Indeed Career Guide. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/benefits-of-a-diverse-workforce
7 AMN Healthcare. AMN Healthcare Survey. GlobeNewswire. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/10/20/2538448/0/en/AMN-Healthcare-Survey-85-of-Healthcare-Facilities-Face-Shortages-of-Allied-Healthcare-Professionals.html
8 LinkedIn Learning. Workplace Learning Report 2024. https://learning.linkedin.com/resources/workplace-learning-report
9 MGMA. The MA conundrum. https://www.mgma.com/mgma-stats/the-ma-conundrum-finding-new-workforce-solutions-amid-staffing-shortages
10 PWC. Upskill, Reskill or Hire? https://proedge.pwc.com/resources/upskill-reskill-or-hire-a-guide-to-smarter-skill-development
11 McKinsey & Company. How health systems and educators can work to close the talent gap. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare/our-insights/how-health-systems-and-educators-can-work-to-close-the-talent-gap
12 NHA. 3 Key Stats About Medical Assistants in 2022. https://info.nhanow.com/blog/3-key-stats-about-medical-assisting-for-2022
