NHCWCA® Free Medical Assistant Certification Week

November 17th – 21st, 2025

Registration Opens: November 16th
Registration Closes: November 21st at 5:00 PM EST

Since 2019, the National Healthcare Workers Certification Association (NHCWCA®) has been the only national certification board to offer a 100% free national certification pathway for eligible healthcare workers. This event recognizes frontline medical assistants and allied health employees who developed their skills through real-world experience and now require national certification for employment, compliance, or advancement.

Who Qualifies?

To participate in Free Medical Assistant Certification Week, candidates must:

• Be currently employed by a healthcare facility
• Have a minimum of 1 year of verifiable work experience
• Perform clinical and/or administrative MA duties
• Have their employer complete the required verification forms

Eligible candidates may qualify under NHCWCA’s exam exemption / competency-based pathway, allowing experienced workers to earn national certification based on employer-verified job duties and skills.

Required Employer Documentation

• Work Experience Verification Form
• Competency-Based Skills Exam Form (completed by the employer or supervisor)

These documents determine candidate eligibility and the credential awarded. NHCWCA does not choose the credential—your employer does.

Two National Credential Options Based on Employer Verification

All approved candidates will receive one of two nationally recognized credentials, depending on their verified competencies.

Option 1 – Nationally Certified Clinical & Administrative Medical Assistant (NCCAMA™)

Awarded when employer verification confirms competency in:

• Clinical medical assistant duties
• Administrative/front-office responsibilities
• General patient care tasks

Option 2 – Nationally Certified Multi-Skilled Medical Assistant (NCMMA™)

This advanced stacked credential includes:

• Medical Assistant
• Phlebotomy Technician
• EKG Technician

Awarded when employer verification confirms competency in:

• Clinical MA duties
• Administrative duties
• Venipuncture and specimen collection
• EKG lead placement and rhythm acquisition

Employer verification determines which credential the candidate receives—not the candidate.

About NHCWCA® & Multi-Skilled Stacked Credentials™

NHCWCA® and NHCWA® are the original founders, owners, and trademark holders of the nation’s first multi-skilled stacked credentials™. This model transformed healthcare training by enabling professionals to earn multiple national certifications through one integrated pathway.

Why Multi-Skilled Stacked Credentials™ Make a Difference

Multi-skilled certification is now one of the most valuable workforce models in healthcare. Employers prefer multi-skilled workers because they can safely and effectively perform multiple patient care roles.

How Multi-Skilled Credentials Save Employers Money

• Reduced overtime costs — fewer employees needed to cover multiple roles
• Less reliance on agency staffing — multi-skilled workers eliminate staffing gaps
• Increased scheduling flexibility
• Improved patient safety and compliance
• Higher staff retention from employer-supported certification

Community Impact

Multi-skilled credentials strengthen communities by:

• Improving access to skilled healthcare workers
• Allowing facilities to serve more patients safely
• Creating stronger local workforce pipelines
• Providing economic mobility for healthcare workers

First Nationally Certified Multi-Skilled Healthcare Technician™

NHCWCA is the official trademark owner of the Nationally Certified Multi-Skilled Healthcare Technician™ (NCMHT™)—the first program in the nation where students earn five national certifications in one pathway.

This 5-stack program includes:

• Clinical Medical Assisting
• Patient Care Technician
• Phlebotomy Technician
• EKG Technician
• Emergency/Acute Care Support

This groundbreaking credential has become the standard for advanced cross-training across hospitals, schools, and workforce programs nationwide.

Global Division – GHCWCA.org

NHCWCA® now proudly owns GHCWCA.org, establishing the Global Healthcare Workers Certification Association™ (GHCWCA™).

This expansion allows us to support:

• International workforce development
• Global credential portability
• Skills standardization across countries
• Global compliance and patient safety initiatives
• International employer and school partnerships

With GHCWCA™, our credentialing leadership now extends worldwide.

Our History of Firsts in Healthcare Certification

Our organization has a long history of leading innovation in healthcare certification and workforce development.

In 2008, we became the first national healthcare certification board to add a job board directly to our website, connecting certified healthcare workers with real employment opportunities and paving the way for other boards to follow.

In 2009, we introduced the nation’s first Healthcare Workers Certification Bridge Program for professionals who were trained on the job. We recognized that it was not fair to tell someone who had been safely performing their job for a decade or more that they now had to return to school and sit for a traditional exam just to keep working. Instead, we created a competency-based pathway that allowed experienced healthcare workers to earn national certification through employer verification and documented skills.

We then extended this bridge model to trade schools and colleges, allowing programs to grant credit for previous experience and to formally recognize on-the-job training as part of the pathway to certification.

We were also the first board to create youth credentials—a structured pathway for high school students to begin earning healthcare credentials before graduation. Prior to this work, other boards required graduation from an allied health program before a candidate could sit for an exam. Because of our leadership, other boards began developing similar bridge pathways and now include employer verification forms on their own websites.

Our board was the first to formally recognize and establish the role of the Operating Room Technologist (NCORST), understanding that this specialized position evolved from duties historically performed by nurses.

Through all of these initiatives, we have paved the way and assisted several other boards, sharing our models and experience so that the broader healthcare certification community could advance together.

Trademark Protection & Credential Innovation

NHCWCA® and NHCWA® are the first and only national healthcare certification boards to formally trademark our credentials, credential names, stacked pathways, and workforce certification models. We currently hold hundreds of registered and pending trademarks, protecting the originality, structure, and intellectual property of the programs we created.

This trademark protection ensures integrity, prevents unauthorized duplication, and preserves the national standards we established. Many of our credential names, pathways, and workforce systems have since been replicated by other boards, but ours remain the original, trademarked, and legally protected versions.

First to Create the Nationally Certified Urgent Care Technician™ Credential

We were the first board in the United States to develop and trademark the Nationally Certified Urgent Care Technician™ (NCUCT™) credential. This credential was created to support the rapid expansion of the urgent care industry and to ensure that workers in fast-paced clinical environments received standardized, nationally recognized competency validation.

NHCWCA was also the first and only board to offer free certification opportunities to urgent care centers across the U.S., helping employers achieve compliance while strengthening community access to care.

Only Nationally Certified Multi-Skilled Phlebotomy Technician™ Credential

NHCWCA created and trademarked the Nationally Certified Multi-Skilled Phlebotomy Technician™ (NCMSPT™) — the only national credential that formally includes:

• Phlebotomy
• Laboratory assistant competencies
• Specimen processing
• Quality control and workflow integration

No other board offers a multi-skilled phlebotomy credential that combines phlebotomy, lab, and specimen-processing competencies under one nationally recognized certification.

First Credentials for Clinical Research Professionals

NHCWCA was one of the first national boards to create certification pathways for clinical research roles, including:

• Clinical Research Assistants
• Clinical Research Coordinators
• Clinical Trial Technicians
• Clinical Research Phlebotomists
• Specimen Logistics & Processing Technicians

These pathways were developed before clinical research credentials became common. Our work established one of the first national skills-based credential systems for clinical research workforce roles and influenced how other boards developed their own programs.

Leaders in Competency-Based Bridge Pathways

NHCWCA was the first board to design and implement:

• Employer-verified competency pathways
• Experience-based eligibility routes
• Credit-for-experience models for schools
• Youth healthcare credential pathways
• Multi-stacked credential pathways
• On-the-job recognition programs

Today, most major competitors use some form of experience verification, employer attestation, or bridge eligibility models, but these pathways did not exist before NHCWCA developed them.

Protecting the First Multi-Skilled & Stacked Credentialing System™

We are the originators and trademark owners of the national multi-skilled and stacked credentialing system™, including:

• Nationally Certified Multi-Skilled Medical Assistant™
• Nationally Certified Multi-Skilled Healthcare Technician™ (5-stack)
• Nationally Certified Multi-Skilled Patient Care Technician™
• Nationally Certified Multi-Skilled Phlebotomy Technician™
• Nationally Certified Multi-Skilled Clinical Lab Technician™

Other boards have attempted to imitate or rebrand similar models, but the original stacked-credential system remains a protected trademark of NHCWCA®.

Leading While Others Follow

Our innovations have reshaped the national healthcare certification landscape. Boards that came after us now adopt pathways, forms, job models, and credential structures that we created first. NHCWCA remains the first, original, trademarked, and documented certification authority — and the only board with a global division (GHCWCA™) supporting international healthcare workforce development.

Trusted by Major Healthcare Employers & Schools

NHCWCA® and NHCWA® credentials are trusted by hospitals, academic institutions, and healthcare systems nationwide.

• Cape May Regional Medical Center (NJ) – Certified all ED Techs and PCTs
• Yale New Haven Health
• Hartford HealthCare
• NYU Health
• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)

Our Role in Lincoln Tech’s First PCT Program

NHCWCA played an instrumental role in helping Lincoln Tech develop, structure, and secure approval for their first Patient Care Technician (PCT) program at the New Jersey campus.

• Curriculum development and alignment
• Skills competencies and national standard mapping
• Credential pathway integration
• Guidance on regulatory expectations

Our contribution helped establish a program that became one of their strongest healthcare pathways.

How Free Certification Week Works

1. November 16th: Registration opens.
2. Employer completes the Work Experience Verification Form.
3. Employer completes and signs the Competency-Based Skills Exam Form.
4. NHCWCA reviews eligibility under the exam exemption pathway.
5. Candidates participate in Free Certification Week from Nov 17th–21st.
6. Successful candidates receive:
   • NCCAMA™ – Clinical & Administrative Medical Assistant
   • NCMMA™ – Multi-Skilled Medical Assistant (MA + Phlebotomy + EKG)

Registration closes November 21st at 5:00 PM EST. No exceptions.

All fees are fully waived. This is a 100% free national certification opportunity for qualified healthcare workers.