Author

Nancy Mathai

Date of Award

Spring 3-2017

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Administration (MPA)

Abstract

Effective and affordable medical assistant training programs are necessary to support the increased need for medical assistants in healthcare. Unfortunately, the path to a becoming a medical assistant can be very difficult, time consuming and expensive. Career education programs in high schools and community colleges help all students obtain an education, including technical training and preparation for the workplace. California Community Colleges have historically trained medical assistant students. Although affordable, these inflexible, lengthy and limited capacity programs have created a demand for alternative training programs. For-profit predatory training programs have filled the void to help meet the demand for medical assistants. A review of the relevant literature defines demand and training options currently available. Interview data collected from key informants, which included community college administrators, currently employed medical assistants and human resource healthcare professionals/educators, helped to assess challenges in offering modified programs at the community college level. The result of this study may provide information on whether a modification of community college training programs will result in more medical assistant graduates.

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