Be Aware of Pseudo-Science Medical Assistants

In the Internet age, laypersons – that is people who have not completed medical assistant education or any other medical training – have unprecedented access to an overwhelming volume of information about their own health.  Credible sites like WebMD.com and others, while home to lots of actual, proven scientific/medical knowledge, can still lead the untrained to make erroneous decisions regarding what may be ailing them.  Diagnoses are best left to professionals who’ve studied long and hard to be able to tell the difference between something minor and something catastrophic. Medical nursing assistants are often at the front line when patients visit their doctors.  These days, many nursing assistants report that patients come to their visits with established preconceptions about what is bothering them.  “I’m sure I have ulcerative colitis” they’ll state with conviction, when in fact, they only suffer from constipation. Part of the job of a certified medical assistant is to gently disabuse people of these uninformed beliefs.  The video below does a good job of explaining the phenomenon of health quackery promoted by the on-peer-reviewed nature of the internet. Article updated December 12, 2023

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