How To Become A Clinical Secretary: What It Is and Career Path

What is a clinical secretary and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Doctors are busy people and don't have time to schedule appointments, maintain patient data, or handle other administrative tasks. That is why the clinical secretary, also sometimes known as the medical secretary, is such a crucial person when it comes to running a medical office. They are responsible for many of the administrative tasks that keep a clinic running smoothly.

The clinical secretary provides a friendly face (or voice, if talking over the phone) for patients visiting the clinic. They check insurance records and process intake paperwork for patients to ensure that the clinic has all patient data in order. The clinical secretary also takes care of scheduling for the clinic and makes sure that the doctor isn't scheduled to see five patients at once.

The stereotype that secretaries are almost always women somewhat applies to this field as nearly 85% of clinical secretaries are women. However, that doesn't mean that men cannot have the organizational skills and friendly manner to keep a medical office running.

ScoreClinical SecretaryUS Average

Salary

2.8

Avg. Salary $35,722

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.2

Growth rate -8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.37%

Asian 3.77%

Black or African American 9.57%

Hispanic or Latino 11.96%

Unknown 3.77%

White 70.56%

Gender

female 91.80%

male 8.20%

Age - 51

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 51

Stress level

7.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.7

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

9.3

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a clinical secretary

Explore clinical secretary education requirements

Most common clinical secretary degrees

Bachelor's

32.1 %

Associate

31.5 %

High School Diploma

16.5 %

Start to develop specific clinical secretary skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	30.49%
Medical Terminology	13.65%
Patient Calls	7.52%
Patient Care	4.22%
Phone Calls	4.01%

Complete relevant clinical secretary training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New clinical secretaries learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a clinical secretary based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real clinical secretary resumes.

Research clinical secretary duties and responsibilities

Manage HIPAA releases, gathering and sending request information to clients.
Conduct 6 mass vaccination campaigns, manage protein-calorie malnutrition, coordinate epidemiological surveillance, and direct health facility rehabilitation
Transcribe pathology and autopsy reports from tape dictation as well as maintained departmental procedure manuals.
Assist with any CPR compressions.

Prepare your clinical secretary resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your clinical secretary resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a clinical secretary resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable clinical secretary resume templates

Build a professional clinical secretary resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your clinical secretary resume.