These further education and training courses for MFA are available

Medical assistants who want to continue their education are initially faced with a major problem: an almost incomprehensible range of continuing education courses and degree programs. "I found everything and nothing on the Internet," says Kristin Maurach, a trained medical assistant, about her first attempt to find the right continuing education program. Kristin had to do intensive research for about a year before she decided on the part-time study program in health and social management.

"Continuing education opportunities for MFAs resemble a career jungle."

Kristin Maurach, founder of MFA times differently in the interview

After her studies, Kristin launched the platform MFA-mal-anders.de. MFA mal anders is now the largest career portal in Germany exclusively for medical and dental assistants. Kristin talks to Nelly about how her platform helps MFAs make decisions about further training and how practices can use the website to find the right MFA.  

"There was no central continuing education site for MFAs that listed all the offerings"

Nelly: Why did you start MFA differently?

Kristin Maurach: The idea was born out of necessity: I was looking for the right training myself for a long time, but had to do extremely long research to find the right one.

I am a trained medical assistant. I still did the old training, then a year later it was the training as a medical assistant. I have always enjoyed the profession. It is a really nice job! However, I was very quickly at quite a high point in my career. I was the practice manager for the medical director of a private clinic. Then I thought to myself: should I still be doing this job in 30 or 40 years...? That was not an option for me. I was inquisitive and wanted more.

So I decided to continue my education. In fact, however, I had no overview of what options were actually available. I got very little help on the Internet. I had to fight my way through a real career jungle and do a lot of research. There was simply no central site that listed all the offers. Even the pages of the medical associations didn't help me. That's when I came up with the idea of MFA in a different way. After all, I had spent a year collecting information on career opportunities for MFAs. And I wanted to make this information available to other medical assistants.

"Practices need to apply to MFAs - not the other way around"

Nelly: What exactly does MFA offer differently?

Kristin Maurach: Our focus is on the career of the MFA. We have a clear list of all further education and training opportunities as well as courses of study.

On our website, the MFA can search specifically, for example, for further training in practice management. She can see at a glance: Who offers this at all? Who offers it online? Who only offers it offline? The medical assistant can therefore directly see all the advantages and disadvantages. That's something you won't find on any other online platform.

Then, of course, there are the job offers and applications. Although training as a medical assistant is one of the most popular forms of training, there are simply too few applicants for too many vacancies. And so it happens that the practices have to apply to the medical assistants - and not vice versa.

So if practices are looking for MFAs, they can post an ad with us or browse the job searches. The MFAs can post the job searches completely anonymously - an option that is used very frequently. Potential employers from the surrounding area can then contact the MFA. The MFA, in turn, is then free to decide whether or not to respond. This means that the MFA is in a better position with us and holds the scepter in her own hands, so to speak!

Nelly: To what extent can ZFA and MFA continue their education? Can you give a few examples?

Kristin Maurach: There are really diverse and so many advanced training courses that I can't list them all here. Anyone who wants to continue their education as an MFA should first ask themselves the question: What do I enjoy most about my job? Am I the kind of person who enjoys working with patients? Or am I perhaps an organizational talent? For example, there are also people who thrive on the topic of data protection or who enjoy taking care of quality management in practices.

Once the MFA has figured that out, she can visit our site to find out about continuing education opportunities in various career fields. Here she can search for continuing education in the areas of medical-technical, administration, consulting, management and research. So there's something for every medical assistant!

"Many physicians unconsciously create a hierarchical work environment"

Nelly: From your perspective, what are the most common problems in medical offices for MFAs?

Kristin Maurach: The biggest problem in medical practices is by far the lack of staff. There are always too few medical assistants in practices with far too many tasks. Bureaucracy in particular is a problem for many medical assistants.

Then there is the issue of personnel management. Doctors are of course experts in their field, but they also have to manage people. But this is not taught at all in medical school. Doctors often have an old professor in front of them during their training and start out at the lowest level of the hierarchy. And it is precisely this experience that they then unconsciously pass on to the medical assistants, creating a very hierarchical, old-fashioned working environment. This treatment of medical assistants, which is not always appreciative, creates an unhealthy working environment.

In addition, there is always friction over working hours. Many practices still have opening hours from the past, where there are very long lunch breaks, but the practice is open late in the afternoon until the evening. Of course, this is a great service for patients. But for the employees, these working hours are often too inflexible. Many of them want to, or sometimes have to, finish work earlier in order to ensure childcare. After all, about 98 percent of MFAs are still women, and childcare is often still largely the responsibility of mothers.

Nelly: How can medical practices make the MFA profession more attractive from your point of view?

Kristin Maurach: Many tasks simply need to be made much more efficient - for example through digitalization. With the right software solutions, the workload of medical assistants can be reduced so that they have more time for patients or to complete other important administrative tasks.

In addition, more training positions simply have to be created. Practices should also be open to lateral entrants who, for example, manage the reception desk and use digital tools to make the day-to-day running of the practice more efficient and smoother. The digital assistants will then provide more staff in the practices, so to speak, so that the MFAs will once again have more time to carry out the more complex tasks adequately and to a high standard of quality. Then you will have less stress and also more fun at work again!

Relieve your MFA with Nelly

Would you as a doctor also like to make the working environment of your medical assistants more attractive? Then free them from unnecessary paperwork - with Nelly. With the software, you can digitize patient admission and give your medical assistants 90 minutes more time - every day. Create a digital workflow in your practice now. We will advise you on your individual case free of charge and without obligation!

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The personal designations used in this article always refer equally to all persons. For the sake of better readability, we do not use the same name twice or in the opposite gender.