Clinical Medical Assisting

About the Authors:

Margaret Schell Frazier, RN, CMA, B.S. Margaret studied nursing at Parkview Methodist School of Nursing, completing an ADN at Purdue University, then a B.S. in Health Sciences at St Francis University. She continued her formal education at Indiana State University, taking courses in technical education.

Margaret spent 13 years as an educator in the health careers field, specializing in medical assistant education. In addition to teaching mainly in medical assisting programs, she was assigned to curriculum development in pharmacology technology, physical therapy assistant, phlebotomy, massage therapy, EKG technician, and medical dictation. She also worked twice on the statewide medical assisting curriculum review committee.

As an RN, she spent over 23 years at an intercity hospital working in maternal child health, including 8 years in labor and delivery. She then transferred to the emergency department where she worked for over15 years. This experience also afforded an opportunity to work in the ambulatory care center on weekends while teaching medical assisting classes. She also worked in the office of an ENT practitioner and in addition to office duties served as a private surgical scrub.

Margaret has been a member of AAMA since 1988 and a CMA during that time. She has served the organization at all three levels, local, state, and national. Her work has been published twice in the national professional journal, and has published other books. She has presented at several national meetings in continuing education seminars. She is recognized by schools around the country as an expert in curriculum development and implementation.

Retirement from nursing and the teaching arena was not a retirement from the medical field. Margaret is president and consultant of M and M Consulting and still works in both areas of a physician's office, administrative and clinical. She spends many hours at her computer writing books and in her flower shop, Margie's Rose, where she relaxes while arranging flowers.

As early as she can remember, Margie (as she is known to her friends, students, and colleagues) has been interested in the medical field. She would read anything she could about medicine and still does. Her childhood neighbor was a physician and he encouraged her, as did her father, to keep learning about medicine and to do her best in that field.

Margaret was married in 1957. She and her husband have four children, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. They live on a small farm in rural northeast Indiana.



Connie Morgan, MEd, RN, CMA, graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University in 1978 with a BS in Nursing and received RN licensure the same year. She was certified as a medical assistant in 1993 and remains current in skill level and certification. She went on to earn a master's degree in Education in 1995. Connie became "hooked" on teaching when she started assisting nursing students during their clinical rotation. In the years since, she has taught nursing students at St. Joseph's Diploma School of Nursing in Fort Wayne, IN, as well as the public, the general and clinical staff at Munising Memorial Hospital in Munising, MI, and medical assistant and practical nursing students at Ivy Tech Community College in Kokomo, Logansport, and Wabash, IN.

Connie has worked in a variety of clinical areas, including nursing homes and surgical, oncology, orthopedic, urology, obstetric, pediatric, intensive care, and ambulatory care settings as a nurse, and as a medical assistant in insurance, pediatric, and podiatry settings. In addition, she has worked to promote the medical assistant profession by maintaining membership in the American Association of Medical Assistants since 1993, serving as a CRB/CAAHEP surveyor since 1996, and editing articles for the magazine Certified Medical Assistant for the past few years. She continues to teach in the medical assistant program at Ivy Tech Community College.