Leaving the profession as a medical assistant: a qualitative study exploring the process, reasons and potential preventive measures.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Worldwide growing shortages among health care staff are observed. This also holds true for medical assistants in Germany. Medical assistants mainly work in outpatient care and are the first point of contact for patients while performing clinical and administrative tasks. We sought to explore profession turnover among medical assistants, that is, in terms of the underlying decision-making process, the reasons for leaving the medical assistant profession and potential retention measures from the perspective of former medical assistants.

Methods

For this qualitative study, we conducted semi-structured telephone interviews with 20 former medical assistants between August and November 2023. Eligible for participation were medical assistants who (i) were of legal age, (

SUBMITTER: Mambrey V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11423516 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature