[HeartsOpenWide]

We do not have any office nurses in my area that I know of. All medical offices are filled with MAs. At least the ones I am familiar with and make referrals too. I am am an MA and I am not saying in any way that MA are just like nurses, however I am curious as to what a nurse does in a office setting, ie what more do they do than MAs? Is it more of the surgical office that have nurses that need to be nurses for surgeries? I really do not know so don't think I am trying to make an issue here. I really like working in an office setting, and want to go into midwifery and most midwives around here have clinical/office hours so I would like to practice office nursing as well as hospital nursing. Any information would be appreciated as long as you do not flame me.

[groovetta]

Maybe you could tell me what MAs do. I've not worked with MAs before, but would have if I had accepted the job offer from the OB/GYN office.

Here are some of the things I do during my work day. I'll just sort of rattle them off as they come to mind. I'm a LPN working in a Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery practice. On clinic days (days patients come in for appts.), I pretty much weigh them, do vital signs, listen to lungs heart, review medications, any problems they may have, remove surgical dressings, sutures, etc. If they are new patients, I get as much of their H&P as possible. Other duties include being sure lab results, etc. are on the chart for their appt., phoning in medication to the pharmacy, making decisions re: medications as far as side effects, dosages based on lab results, etc. All under the supervision of a RN at the satellite office as our docs are in surgery most days all day. Really, you learn their standard protocol after a while regarding certain matters. Sometimes my duties include office work such as requesting diagnostic procedures (Includes ICD-9 codes, procedure codes, etc.), scheduling surgeries, back to work letters, taking patient triage calls, calls from home health nurses. I order most of the medical supplies. Generally open all the mail. Assist with in office procedures such as thoracentesis, endovenous laser therapy, prepare nerve block injection meds, culture wounds, assist with bil. venous dopplers. I'm sure as the practice grows, my job will be more of the nursing related duties where right now, I sort of do some of the office type duties as well. I have given meds through a J-tube, but this was a rare occasion in a office setting.

I'd say the biggest part of my job is patient telephone triage and clinic days.

Anyone who would flame you should just chill. :- ) Sometimes there are just too many of us women working in one place. :-P I worked for 8 yrs. in long term care and I can't begin to tell you how valuable the CNAs were with regard to patient care and recognizing if the resident was having problems. They knew the residents better than anyone. In most cases anyway.

[Johnkc8rak]

The RN in the office work at is the manager. Beside's all of the daily running of the office (A full time job in it's self). She also does all of the education training for the pt's. We have a lot of PT/INR's and diabetics. We take the vitals/blood,misc stuff and then she take's care of the education and medication change's. Then she talks to the MD so we know what medications to call into the pharmacy if a change is needed. She also take's all of the advice call's.

John

[HeartsOpenWide]

I will compare what I do with what you do (which you do more)

Originally Posted by groovetta

Maybe you could tell me what MAs do. I've not worked with MAs before, but would have if I had accepted the job offer from the OB/GYN office.

Here are some of the things I do during my work day. I'll just sort of rattle them off as they come to mind. I'm a LPN working in a Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery practice. On clinic days (days patients come in for appts.), I pretty much weigh them, do vital signs, listen to lungs heart, review medications, any problems they may have, remove surgical dressings, sutures, etc (yes to all but listen to lungs and heart). If they are new patients, I get as much of their H&P as possible(Get some history but do not do a physical). Other duties include being sure lab results, etc. are on the chart for their appt., phoning in medication to the pharmacy,(yes) making decisions re: medications as far as side effects, dosages based on lab results, etc.(No) All under the supervision of a RN at the satellite office as our docs are in surgery most days all day. Really, you learn their standard protocol after a while regarding certain matters. Sometimes my duties include office work such as requesting diagnostic procedures (Includes ICD-9 codes, procedure codes, etc.), scheduling surgeries, back to work letters, taking patient triage calls, calls from home health nurses.(yes, but we do not actually do triage, we take the call/ message, out the patient on hold and relay the information to the doctor) I order most of the medical supplies. Generally open all the mail. (Yes)Assist with in office procedures such as thoracentesis, endovenous laser therapy, prepare nerve block injection meds, culture wounds, assist with bil. venous dopplers.(yes to some, like small office procedures, colposcopy, paps, excisions, sigmoids, proctos ect...can prepare nerve block meds but can not inject them, but can inject other basic meds like Demerol, phenergan, stadol...imunizations ect) I'm sure as the practice grows, my job will be more of the nursing related duties where right now, I sort of do some of the office type duties as well. I have given meds through a J-tube, but this was a rare occasion in a office setting.
I also draw blood, but of course can not put anything into the blood.

I'd say the biggest part of my job is patient telephone triage and clinic days.

Anyone who would flame you should just chill. :- ) Sometimes there are just too many of us women working in one place. :-P I worked for 8 yrs. in long term care and I can't begin to tell you how valuable the CNAs were with regard to patient care and recognizing if the resident was having problems. They knew the residents better than anyone. In most cases anyway.

[TheCommuter]

There is a large corporate chain of urgent care clinics in my metropolitan area that hire MAs, LVNs, and RNs to do clinical work. The MAs do their typical front and back office duties. The LVNs do everything the MAs do in addition to taking telephone orders and other duties that require a license. I am unsure as to what the RNs do.

[groovetta]

...can prepare nerve block meds but can not inject them, but can inject other basic meds like Demerol, phenergan, stadol...imunizations ect)

This is the only thing that I'd be uncomfortable doing if I were a MA.

[prowlingMA]

in our Oncologist office the MA does all vitals, blood draws, rooms pt, some injections,assist docs .RN start IV's, administer chemo, injections, and CVC ( veinous port) care.