Becoming a Medical Office Assistant in the U.S. Military

By allied health world contributing writer
Published: January 29th, 2010

Those who wish to become a medical office assistant within a branch of the U.S. Armed Forces should follow these steps:

Become a certified medical assistant. The military seeks the best and most well trained medical assistants, and the completion of a certified medical office assistant training program will make it much more likely for applicants to be taken on by a certain military branch as a medical office assistant.
Obtain a minimum of an associate degree in the medical office assistant field. There are many community colleges that provide medical office assistant programs in the areas of keyboarding, accounting basics, insurance processing, medical terminology, and anatomy. These courses will be invaluable in helping officers to become military medical assistants.
Volunteer. Military recruiters will be impressed with on-the-job medical office experience. The ability to multitask and perform important administrative support functions is essential in the Armed Forces. The American Red Cross, for example, is an excellent place to volunteer and receive medical office assistant experience.