Clinical Assistant Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

This post provides exhaustive information on the job description of a clinical assistant, to help you understand the work they do.

It highlights the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities that typically define the clinical assistant work description.

What Does a Clinical Assistant Do?

A clinical assistant is a medical personal who performs specified healthcare duties and assists the physician or doctor in administering care and treatment to patients, to facilitate smooth flow of healthcare practices.

The job description of the clinical assistant is to provide basic and direct care to patients as directed by a certified healthcare provider, and ensure good patient care experience in the clinic.

The clinical assistant obtains and records routine information from patients such as weight, height, blood pressure, temperature and pulse, which is needed by the healthcare provider in administering proper treatment to them.

He/she is responsible for directing and guiding patients through specific locations or offices where they will receive treatment at the clinic, and puts them through where they are experiencing difficulties with the clinic procedures.

Performing administrative role, the clinical assistant receives patients to the clinic and takes records of their personal and health information, and ensures that they complete all paper works needed to facilitate their treatment.

He/she ensures that the procedure room is set, by bringing in and arranging all items needed for a procedure to be performed, and is always on standby to assist with items that may be needed during a procedure.

In a bid to ensure patients comfort and wellbeing, the clinical assistant supervises the cleaning of the clinic environment to ensure that it promotes patients safety and hygiene.

He/she carries out minor clinical procedures under the supervision of a doctor, with an understanding of cause and effect to determine patients’ health condition, and assists with diagnostic tests performed by the doctor.

Clinical Assistant Job Description Example/Sample/Template

The job description example shown below highlights the major duties, tasks, and responsibilities usually contained in the clinical assistant’s job description:

• Welcome patients to the clinic by greeting them warmly and making them feel comfortable
• Prepare patients for their visit to the doctor by sorting out their files and taking appropriate records of their health condition
• Direct and accompany patients to offices where they will be attended to, to avoid them missing their way
• Take records of doctor’s findings in diagnostic tests and maintain laboratory data files for easy access and evaluation by the doctor
• Inspect the supply of clinical equipment to ensure that they are in good condition and sterilize them against infection before use
• Supervise the cleaning and sanitation of the clinical environment to prevent contamination of infections
• Motivate patients to cooperate in their treatment procedure in order to gain quick recovery
• Encourage patients to take their treatment and drug prescription seriously
• Provide patients’ health records and fill in accurate details needed for insurance purposes
• Collect laboratory specimen from patients and get them ready for testing
• Mediate between patients and healthcare providers
• Coordinate patients during visits to the clinic to ensure orderliness and decorum.

The sample job description presented above has information that can be used in making a resume for the post of the clinical assistant, especially in writing the employment history section of such resumes.

Clinical Assistant Requirements: Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities for Career Success

The clinical assistant is better equipped for their roles in the healthcare sector with the following set of skills, knowledge, and other attributes, which usually form the basic requirements for employment:

• Good knowledge of healthcare practices
• Good knowledge of medical lab procedures
• Good interpersonal skills
• Must be familiar with medical terms and jargons
• Active listening skills.