Medical Assisting, Associate of Applied Science
The mission of the Associate of Applied Science in Medical Assisting program is to give students theoretical and hands-on experience allowing them to demonstrate clinical skills including patient care, laboratory procedures, venipuncture, assisting with exams, collecting specimens, administering patient medication, recording vital signs, and taking patient history. Students are taught to be able to demonstrate administrative skills including scheduling; bookkeeping procedures; medical office and records management; processing of insurance claims; and procedural and diagnostic coding. The program is accredited by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools at the Alexandria, Falls Church, Glen Allen, Newport News, Virginia Beach, and Woodbridge campuses. This program requires students to purchase a health sciences kit from the University.
At the end of the program, students are able to:
- Define the roles and the responsibilities of a medical assistant.
- Demonstrate medical assistant principles and clinical procedures for managing an office practice, quality patient care, and laboratory procedures.
- Summarize the strategies for finding printed materials, personal communications, observations, and electronic resources related to healthcare.
This program typically takes 32 months to complete for part-time enrollment and 16 months to complete for students enrolled full-time.
Required courses for AAS Medical Assisting (15 core, 5 arts and sciences) = 20 courses or 90 credit hours
Core Requirements (15 courses or 67.5 credits)
| MED 110 | Anatomy and Physiology I | 4.5 |
| MED 120 | Medical Terminology | 4.5 |
| MED 130 | Medical Insurance, Billing, and Coding | 4.5 |
| MED 140 | Basic Clinical Procedures | 4.5 |
| MED 160 | Medical Computer Applications | 4.5 |
| MED 210 | Anatomy and Physiology II | 4.5 |
| MED 220 | Professional Procedures | 4.5 |
| MED 230 | Medical Law and Ethics | 4.5 |
| MED 240 | Pharmacology I | 4.5 |
| MED 250 | Medical Office Practice | 4.5 |
| MED 255 | Phlebotomy and Medication Administration | 4.5 |
| MED 260 | Exams andSpecialty Procedures | 4.5 |
| MED 285 | Electrocardiography | 4.5 |
| MED 290 | Medical Assisting Externship | 4.5 |
| SCI 115 | Introduction to Computer Literacy | 4.5 |
Arts and Sciences Requirements (5 courses or 22.5 credits)
See Arts and Sciences section