In the healthcare job market, much has changed in the past few years. Qualified healthcare workers are in demand, and in no area is this so apparent as in medical assisting. The challenges for the programs that train these assistants are multi-faceted:

• Guidelines, technologies, and the demands of this industry are changing fast. It is hard to keep up with what is new and expected when you have a full classroom.
• Today’s student brings unique challenges to an educational environment. In addition to skills and tasks, you have to teach critical thinking, professionalism, and communication.
• In a classroom of mixed generations, ability levels, and learning types, engaging all of the students is critical, but requires a multitude of options, which can be tough to plan for an already time-pressed instructor.

Because of our understanding of the above, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins' Comprehensive Medical Assisting, Fourth Edition, is the medical assisting text designed to meet your challenges. In fact, this dynamic package of text and resources represent more than just a textbook, instead providing a suite of learning resources. This is the one text aimed at making sure that every graduate can quickly change their cap and gown for a set of scrubs and immediately be a vital member of the medical office. We do this by:

• Providing the content in a way that speaks to students, with an engaging style that puts comprehension and understanding at the forefront of the experience.
• Putting pedagogy to work in the text through key features like patient education boxes, competency checklists, procedure boxes, etc. We’ve emphasized not only the skill needed, but also continually draw the connection between what a student is learning and what they will need to do when they are working in a medical office.
• Placing students in the real environment in which they will need to live! Our electronic EMR and PMS software package allows you to train students in a platform already in use in medical offices throughout the country. And to help you train, we provide case studies to help keep make the learning experience as real-world as possible.
• Showing what we teach through skills videos to help definitively show the procedures and skills described so learners of all styles can better understand.
• Constantly reinforcing the learning through additional online ancillaries including animations, ESL resources, etc. to round out the experience.
• Helping instructors lessen planning time, giving them more time with their students, through robust instructor resources including lesson plans, PowerPoints, and more.
• A competency spreadsheet helps faculty members and students track their progress through the material.

New content in the fourth edition focuses on addressing crucial changes in policy and technology. Without changing the engaging writing style we’re known for, we’ve made sure that the content is up-to-date and in-line with the needs of the market. We’ve added content on emergency preparedness, a crucial topic in today’s medical office. In addition, instructors will be happy to find the latest CAAHEP and ABHES competencies clearly addressed throughout the text.