Doctor assistant (Doktersassistent)

Information on this skill...

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A doctor's assistant is a health professional who is responsible for supporting work. As a doctor's assistant you are therefore an important addition to a doctor within his or her practice, because a doctor's assistant takes many actions out of the hands of the doctor. The work of a doctor's assistant should generally be seen as supporting activities, such as answering the telephone, making appointments with patients, receiving patients, preparing files and taking care of the administration. In addition, as a doctor's assistant you ensure that the practice is tidy. But assisting with simple medical procedures, such as minor operations, is also part of the job of a doctor's assistant. In addition, a doctor's assistant may be responsible for providing medical information to patients. It is therefore not the case that a doctor's assistant is only responsible for assisting activities. The work and responsibilities of a doctor's assistant must be seen in a broader sense. In many cases, it is the doctor's assistant who speaks to patients for the first time. This means that a doctor's assistant can be expected to correctly assess the seriousness of the situation. As a doctor's assistant you can work for different types of medical specialists, general practitioners and company doctors, depending on where exactly you work as a doctor's assistant. As a doctor's assistant, you are generally also allowed to perform some medical-technical tasks independently, such as injecting, bandaging, suturing, providing first aid or monitoring patients with diabetes. So it is not the case that doctor's assistants are only responsible for administrative work.

As a doctor's assistant, you therefore work in a broad way to be able to support practitioners. Which tasks you have exactly as a doctor's assistant can differ per practice, because there are also doctor's offices that house several specialists, such as a physiotherapist, doctor or nurse. If there are several specialists in a practice, it can also happen that several doctor's assistants will be working. In addition, there may be a medical secretary, who is responsible for the administration. The tasks of a doctor's assistant can therefore differ per doctor's office or employer. Within this profession, communication plays an important role and it will often happen that patients want to tell their story to you. It is also possible that as a doctor's assistant you will have to comfort someone by offering a listening ear. In general, doctor's assistants are also responsible for triage. Triage refers to being able to assess the severity of certain complaints. This is important to be able to determine which clients and/or patients need the first medical attention. In most cases, a doctor's assistant will have to have additional training to be allowed to work as a triage assistant.

WORKING AS A DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT

A doctor's assistant can also be considered a desk clerk, because doctor's assistants are in most cases the first contact for clients. Also, providing information to clients and handling correspondence generally belongs to the responsibilities of a doctor's assistant. Other activities can be preparing instruments or carrying out simple examinations. The provision of first aid is also part of the work of a doctor's assistant. An important addition to the profession of doctor's assistant is that a doctor's assistant cannot be regarded as a doctor's assistant. The position of physician assistant belongs to the work of a basic doctor.

WHAT DO YOU DO AS A DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT:

  • Making appointments
  • Taking care of the intake
  • Providing information and advice
  • Contributing to medical care
  • Keeping records and administration

WHAT DOES A DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT DO:

TRAINING TO BECOME A DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT

Anyone who wants to work as a doctor's assistant will have to follow and complete the MBO training doctor's assistant at level four. The training to become a doctor's assistant will usually take three years. During the training you will regularly do an internship in the practice that can also be outside a doctor's office, for example in a hospital. The training doctor's assistant has common ground with the professions of pharmacy assistant and dental assistant. During the training, a lot of attention will be paid to advising and informing patients in a good way, because that is an important part of work. In addition, there are also plenty of external training institutes where you can follow a course. Accounting is also important as an entrepreneur.

COMPANIES WHERE A DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT CAN BE EMPLOYED

As a doctor's assistant you can work in a doctor's office, general practice, health center, nursing home, nursing home and work for occupational health and safety services.

COMPETENCES DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT

The most important competence of a doctor's assistant is that you are customer-friendly and show commitment. Your communication skills as a doctor's assistant must therefore be good, because they play an important role within the field. In addition, you will have to be able to work independently a lot and you must have knowledge of administrative tasks, such as keeping patient files. Integrity plays a major role within the profession of doctor's assistant and should not never be shamed. Generally important words are sensitivity, empathy, motivation, planning, organizational talent, concentration and stress resistance.

LABOUR MARKET PERSPECTIVE AND CAREER OPPORTUNITIES AS A DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT

As a well-trained doctor's assistant, getting a job is almost never a problem, as there is a shortage of doctor's assistants. As described earlier, there are various types of employers within the healthcare sector where you can work as a doctor's assistant, which will not make getting a job difficult. The career opportunities as a doctor's assistant should be seen in following additional training courses, such as training as a practice nurse.

TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT AND SALARY DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT

The Dutch Association of Doctor's Assistants can find more information about employment conditions. The specific employment conditions may differ per employer. As a doctor's assistant, it can happen that you will work on weekends and in the evening. A doctor's assistant will usually earn a salary between 2200 and 3300 euros gross per month, depending on age, education and responsibilities.

The content on this page has been automatically translated from the Dutch language. For this reason, texts and videos on this page may contain small errors.

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