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Careers beyond medical assisting: what comes next?
Your experience as a medical assistant has built a foundation to transition into many different potential career paths. Discover what's possible.
Discover new career pathways in healthcare
Thinking about expanding your horizons beyond the medical assistant role? You're not alone. Your skills in patient care, communication, and organization offer a strong starting point for transitioning into diverse career paths, including healthcare administration, nursing, community support roles, and beyond.
Here are six career pathways that offer new opportunities for you to have a positive impact on individual and community well-being.
Administration
1. Healthcare administration
Students who start out as a medical assistant may choose to advance their education with an associate or bachelor’s degree in health administration or management. Healthcare administration roles focus on staffing, department needs, budgets and operations.
Graduates of a healthcare administration program can pursue advanced roles in a variety of healthcare industries, including insurance, healthcare policy, healthcare finance, and information management, as well as various clinical settings.
An associate degree in healthcare administration provides foundational knowledge in medical terminology, health policy and procedures, and patient privacy rules and regulations. This is a great option for people wanting to broaden their career options beyond medical assisting in less time.
A bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration offers focused education in health care finance, human resources, and medical operations. A bachelor’s degree takes longer to complete but can help prepare you for more advanced roles.
The BLS reports that organizations have a growing need for healthcare managers to plan, direct and coordinate health services. They project 29% employment growth for medical and health services managers between 2023-2033. The average salary for medical services managers is $137,730 per year ($66.22 per hour), according to BLS data.*
Healthcare administration titles include:
- Physician Practice Manager
- Healthcare Administrator
- Patient Finance Manager
- Health Insurance Manager
- Managed Care Representative
- Healthcare Department Manager
- Clinic Director
- Health Services Manager
- Medical Records Manager
While a bachelor's degree can help you qualify for these types of roles, you can really separate yourself from the pack by earning a Master of Science in Healthcare Administration to advance your education and better prepare for leadership positions.
2. Health Information Management
Health information careers are experiencing rapid growth as organizations invest in electronic medical record-keeping. As a result, there is a growing demand for managers with knowledge of health information systems to ensure that patient data is recorded accurately and securely.
Similar to medical assistants, HIM professionals need strong analytical, problem-solving and communication skills. There are a variety of jobs within the health information management sector. Some HIM jobs and duties include:
- Medical biller: Manage payments on patient balances and oversee insurance claims. They create invoices, submit claims to insurance companies, and investigate claims as needed.
- Medical coder: Review patient records and assign codes for diagnoses and procedures, for billing and reimbursement. You can enter the field with a diploma in medical coding and open up more job opportunities in HIM with an associate degree.
- Health information technician: Work with electronic health records (EHRs) and other systems to ensure data accuracy, confidentiality, and compliance.
- Healthcare data analyst: Identify health trends, improve processes, and provide health-related data to support decision making.
For medical assistants with administrative experience, a bachelor’s degree in health information management can provide the additional technical training needed to pursue roles as a health information technician or clinical data specialist, or leadership roles such as HIM project manager or HIM director.
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Health Sciences
3. Health sciences
Medical assistants looking to complete a bachelor’s degree and advance their allied health career to the next level may consider earning a bachelor’s degree in health science.
Health sciences can offer many unique career paths in health and wellness, fitness and nutrition, health policy and community healthcare roles. A general health sciences curriculum can help you take your healthcare career in many different directions. Current healthcare professionals, including medical assistants, can build upon their experience and education to earn their bachelor’s degree faster—or even pursue their master’s degree—to better qualify for managerial-level roles in their fields.
However, the field of health sciences includes several types of specialty allied health professions, some of which only require a diploma or 2-year degree—including:
Dental hygienists are licensed professionals who help patients maintain good oral health. They work with dentists to provide cleanings, assist with preventive care, and educate patients about oral hygiene. Dental hygienists may also clean teeth by removing plaque and tartar, apply fluoride and sealants to teeth, take X-rays, and assist the dentist with patient records.
Dental assistants schedule appointments, prepare patients for exams and cleanings, and sterilize instruments for dentists.
You can start on the path to dental assisting with a diploma or associate degree. To become a dental hygienist, you’ll need a bachelor’s degree, but there are bridge programs to help you complete your schooling faster.
Physical Therapist Assistants (PTA) assist patients of all ages who need physical rehab due to injury, age, or medical-related issues. PTAs help patients with exercises that help build patient mobility, strength, and coordination and measure changes in the patient’s performance. PTAs may also fit or adjust supportive devices, such as leg braces and provide therapeutic massage using ultrasound or electrical stimulation.
A radiologic technologist performs diagnostic imaging exams, such as X-rays, computer tomography (CT) scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams. They prepare imaging equipment, help position patients, and operate equipment.
Radiology techs may also specialize in an area, such as mammography, sonography or cardiovascular-interventional radiography.
Sterile processing technicians perform important work to decontaminate, sterilize, inspect, and distribute surgical instruments and medical equipment to ensure patient safety.
A surgical technologist, also known as a surgical or scrub tech, is responsible for preparing the operating room, assisting the surgeon during procedures, and maintaining a sterile environment.
Surgical techs set up equipment and instruments, assist patients before surgery, and pass tools and supplies to the surgeon during procedures. Once the surgery is complete, they aid in post-operative care, including applying dressings, disposing of medical waste, and sterilizing equipment.
Nursing
4. Nursing
There is a critical, widening gap between the demand for healthcare services and the availability of qualified nurses. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that employment for RNs will increase by as much as 6 percent nationwide by 2033, translating to nearly 200,000 new jobs.
The nationwide demand for nurses is creating new career advancement opportunities for medical assistants, as well as other healthcare professionals.
“I have always wanted to help people, and a career as a medical assistant is a great way to do that. But my next step is to further my education by attending nursing school,” says Tiffany Norfleet, who earned her medical assisting degree at Herzing University.
Medical assistants can advance to RN by earning an associate or bachelor’s degree in nursing, then passing the NCLEX-RN. Or, they can take a shorter path by going from MA to LPN and start working as a practical nurse before pursuing the RN path.
A career in nursing not only provides new job pathways and earning potential, but it also offers an opportunity to direct and manage patient care, as well as pursue nursing specialties in a variety of potential focus areas.
A Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) is a nurse who provides basic patient care and education. LPNs work under the supervision of registered nurses (RNs), doctors and other healthcare providers. Key LPN duties include checking blood pressure, pulse and other vital signs; providing basic medical care, such as first aid and wound care; and comfort care, helping patients with daily living activities such as bathing, dressing, and eating.
Average salary: $64,150 average salary per year ($64,150 per hour)
Job outlook: 3% increase from 2023-2033, 16,900 jobs added
Registered Nurses (RNs) have a broader scope of practice. They assess patient conditions, develop care plans, administer and manage medications (including IVs), and manage patient care. Becoming an RN generally means competing for higher salaries, increased responsibility, and greater potential to advance to graduate-level education in the future.
Average salary: $98,430 average salary per year ($98,430 per hour)
Job outlook: 6% increase from 2023-2033, 197,200 jobs added
Human Services
5. Health and human services
If you want to transition away from a medical setting, but still enjoy helping people, health and human services is an excellent field to consider. The skills you gained as a medical assistant, such as communication, organization, and patient care, can transition well into a variety of HHS roles. Some popular job options include:
- Community health educator. Connects individuals and communities with health resources. They may also deliver health education programs to promote healthy behaviors and improve community health.
- Substance abuse counselor. Help patients with drug or alcohol dependency issues. Substance abuse counselors provide support, help clients set goals and teach healthy coping mechanisms.
- Social services assistant. Connects individuals with a variety of resources to improve their lives, including medical, mental health, and educational needs.
- Social worker. Social workers empower individuals, families, and communities to enhance their well-being through counseling, advocacy, and education. They develop plans to help clients navigate challenges like poverty, unemployment, discrimination, housing issues, substance abuse, and family conflicts. To become a social worker, you typically need a bachelor’s degree, and for more advanced roles like clinical social work, a master’s degree in social work (MSW) is required.
Interdisciplinary studies
If you’re looking for a bigger career shift but still want to support people and put the skills you learned as a medical assistant to good use, consider an interdisciplinary studies program.
This flexible approach allows you to combine studies in multiple areas, including business, healthcare administration, psychology, and health and human services, to help prepare you for a career path tailored to your interests.
An interdisciplinary studies program represents an opportunity to build a bachelor’s degree education designed for the type of career you want to have after medical assisting. Our admissions team can help advise you how to best structure the program to fit the career path you have in mind.
Job market insights and information is developed and provided by Lightcast. Herzing University makes no representations or guarantees that graduation from its programs will result in a job, promotion, salary increase or other career growth. For information regarding student outcomes, please visit our Consumer Disclosures page. For support with career resources, please contact us by phone at (866) 208-3344 or email at careerdevelopment@herzing.edu.
Take the next step with Herzing
Current medical assistants have many educational options to advance their healthcare careers.
Our school exists to help healthcare professionals like you build your knowledge and skills to advance from where you are to where you want to be. Your highest career goals are possible, and we’re here to help you reach them.
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* BLS pay estimates calculate the median annual wage for various occupations. Per the BLS the median wage for an occupation is: "The wage at which half of the workers in the occupation earned more than that amount, and half earned less. Median wage data are from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey." Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook 2024. BLS median wage estimates do not represent entry-level wages and/or salaries. Multiple factors, including prior experience, age, geographic market in which you want to work, and degree level and field, will affect career outcomes, including starting salary and earnings as an experienced employee. Herzing neither represents that its graduates will earn the median salaries calculated by BLS for a particular job nor guarantees that graduation from its program will result in a job, promotion, particular wage or salary, or other career growth.