Post job

Clinical secretary education requirements

Updated January 8, 2025
2 min read
Usually, clinical secretaries don't need a college education. The most common degree for clinical secretaries is bachelor's degree with 32% graduates, with only 31% clinical secretary graduates earning associate degree. Clinical secretaries who decided to graduate from college often finish University of Phoenix or Georgetown College. Some good skills to have in this position include patients, medical terminology and patient calls.

Popular clinical secretary certifications include Certified Medical Administrative Assistant (CMAA), Nationally Certified Medical Office Assistant (NCMOA), or Certified Medical Office Manager (CMOM). To improve clinical secretary qualification and skills, we prepared some online courses to help in clinical secretary education paths.

What education do you need to become a clinical secretary?

What degree do you need to be a clinical secretary?

The most common degree for clinical secretaries is bachelor's degree, with 32% of clinical secretaries earning that degree. The second and third most common degree levels are associate degree degree at 31% and associate degree degree at 16%.
  • Bachelor's, 32%
  • Associate, 31%
  • High School Diploma, 16%
  • Diploma, 7%
  • Other Degrees, 14%

What should I major in to become a clinical secretary?

You should major in business to become a clinical secretary. 25% of clinical secretaries major in business. Other common majors for a clinical secretary include health care administration and nursing.

Best majors for clinical secretaries

RankMajorPercentages
1Business25.0%
2Health Care Administration13.2%
3Nursing7.1%
4Psychology6.4%
5Liberal Arts5.6%

20 best online courses for clinical secretaries

Advertising disclosure

1. Clinical Data Science

coursera

Are you interested in how to use data generated by doctors, nurses, and the healthcare system to improve the care of future patients? If so, you may be a future clinical data scientist!\n\nThis specialization provides learners with hands on experience in use of electronic health records and informatics tools to perform clinical data science. This series of six courses is designed to augment learner’s existing skills in statistics and programming to provide examples of specific challenges,...

2. The Critical Role of IT Support Staff in Healthcare

coursera

This is a very exciting time to be exploring a career in Health IT Support! In this introductory course, you’ll learn about various roles in IT support that are common in healthcare. IT support staff play critical roles in many different healthcare venues. In addition to helping clinics, hospitals, and emergency rooms, you may end up providing support in a skilled nursing facility, ambulatory surgical center, virtual care setting, or even a patient’s home! On any given day, you may interact...

3. Basic of Clinical Data Management

udemy
4.5
(341)

Clinical Data Management...

4. Good Clinical Practice for Clinical Research Professionals

udemy
4.5
(537)

The Complete, Certified ICH GCP (R2 & R3) Course for Investigators, Study Coordinators, Sponsors, Monitors and Study staff...

5. Introduction to Clinical Data Science

coursera

This course will prepare you to complete all parts of the Clinical Data Science Specialization. In this course you will learn how clinical data are generated, the format of these data, and the ethical and legal restrictions on these data. You will also learn enough SQL and R programming skills to be able to complete the entire Specialization - even if you are a beginner programmer. While you are taking this course you will have access to an actual clinical data set and a free, online...

6. Clinical Kidney, Pancreas and Islet Transplantation

coursera

Kidney transplantation is a major advance of modern medicine which provides high-quality of life for patients with end-stage renal disease. What used to be an experimental, risky, and very limited treatment option more than 50 years ago is now routinely performed in many countries worldwide. The number of renal transplants is expected to rise sharply in the next decade since the proportion of patients with end stage renal disease is increasing. Are you interested in clinical kidney, pancreas...

7. Good Clinical Practice ICH GCP for Clinical Research

udemy
4.5
(710)

Certification on ICH GCP E6 R2 Good Clinical Practice for Clinical Research The Only Complete Course You Can Find Online...

8. The Simplest Guide to Clinical Trials Data Analysis with SAS

udemy
4.4
(1,044)

Step into the world of Pharmaceutical industry Clinical Trials Clinical Research Biostatistics Clinical SAS SAS...

9. Operations and Patient Safety for Healthcare IT Staff

coursera

Now that you've been introduced to the world of Health IT and the important role played by electronic health records (EHRs), we'll focus on other technologies that play a role in maintaining ongoing operations in healthcare. Telemedicine, patient portals, barcode scanners, printers, and medical devices are just some of the technologies that impact providers and patients. As an IT support specialist, you’ll be asked to troubleshoot issues with a wide variety of tools. You'll see a scenario with...

10. Informed Clinical Decision Making using Deep Learning

coursera

This specialisation is for learners with experience in programming that are interested in expanding their skills in applying deep learning in Electronic Health Records and with a focus on how to translate their models into Clinical Decision Support Systems.\n\nThe main areas that would explore are:\n\nData mining of Clinical Databases: Ethics, MIMIC III database, International Classification of Disease System and definition of common clinical outcomes. Deep learning in Electronic Health...

11. The Beginners Course for Clinical Research

udemy
4.5
(650)

The Essentials of Clinical Trials - Clinical Research for Beginners...

12. Certificate Course in Clinical Research (CCCR)

udemy
4
(302)

A Clinical Research Course-ICH-GCP E6(R2), Clinical Trials, Essential Documents, Sponsor, Investigator, Pharmaceuticals...

13. Prehospital care of acute stroke and patient selection for endovascular treatment using the RACE scale

coursera

Acute stroke is a time-dependent medical emergency. In acute ischemic stroke, the first objective is to restore brain flow using sistemic thrombolytic treatment and, in patients with large vessel occlusion, by endovascular treatment. In hemorrhagic stroke there are also specific treatments that can improve the clinical outcome. The sooner the initiation of all these therapies the higher the clinical benefit. Thus, the organization of Stroke Code systems coordinated between emergency medical...

14. Clinical Natural Language Processing

coursera

This course teaches you the fundamentals of clinical natural language processing (NLP). In this course you will learn the basic linguistic principals underlying NLP, as well as how to write regular expressions and handle text data in R. You will also learn practical techniques for text processing to be able to extract information from clinical notes. Finally, you will have a chance to put your skills to the test with a real-world practical application where you develop text processing...

15. Good Clinical Practice (GCP)

udemy
4.2
(313)

Key features of the GCP guideline, roles and responsibilities involved and the requirements of essential documentation...

16. Clinical Research for beginners

udemy
4.2
(462)

The Art of Publishing - Master Pub Med, Study design, Biostatistics, Journal choice, Manuscript writing & Referencing...

17. Predictive Modeling and Transforming Clinical Practice

coursera

This course teaches you the fundamentals of transforming clinical practice using predictive models. This course examines specific challenges and methods of clinical implementation, that clinical data scientists must be aware of when developing their predictive models...

18. HI-FIVE: Health Informatics For Innovation, Value & Enrichment (Clinical Perspective)

coursera

HI-FIVE (Health Informatics For Innovation, Value & Enrichment) Training is a 12-hour online course designed by Columbia University in 2016, with sponsorship from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). The training is role-based and uses case scenarios. Also, it has additional, optional modules on other topics of interest or relevance. Although we suggest to complete the course within a month's timeframe, the course is self-paced and so you can start and...

19. Clinical Trials Operations

coursera

This specialization is designed for individuals and teams that will be running or interacting with clinical trials. In four courses, learners will develop insights and build the skills they need to design, manage, and monitor clinical trials as well as analyze, document, and communicate the results. Learners will also learn best practices regarding ethics, safety, participant recruitment, regulatory compliance, and reporting standards. The core principles and skills of the specialization will...

20. Addiction Treatment: Clinical Skills for Healthcare Providers

coursera

This course is designed with a singular goal: to improve the care you provide to your patients with substance use disorders. By delving into a model case performed by actors, seven Yale instructors from various fields provide techniques to screen your patients for substance use disorder risk, diagnose patients to gauge the severity of their use, directly manage treatment plans, refer out to treatment services, and navigate the various conditions that may limit your patient’s access to treatment...

Average clinical secretary salary by education level

According to our data, clinical secretaries with a Bachelor's degree earn the highest average salary, at $39,019 annually. Clinical secretaries with a Associate degree earn an average annual salary of $37,132.
Clinical secretary education levelClinical secretary salary
High School Diploma or Less$35,793
Bachelor's Degree$39,019
Some College/ Associate Degree$37,132

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Browse office and administrative jobs