Phasing out LPN's.

I,m sorry, but I just wanted to set the record straight concerning CMA's. I am currently finishing a 2-year program for my Associates degree in Medical Assisting, and am going to enter a nursing program this winter. The reason that I would like training for both professions is that they are COMPLETLY different. CMA's are trained to work in a physicians office under the direct supervision of the physician. My training includes administrative and clinical duties, with an emphasis on the clinical. I have been trained in phlebotomy, injections (no IV), routine lab tests, assisting the physician in minor office surgery, and ECG's. For 5 years I worked as a veteranary assistant and my duties included phlebotomy, injections, running labs, and assisting the doctor in surgery. This experiance taught me alot, and I decided to take it into the human medical field. My point is that I think that alot of you don't understand what exactly a CMA does, and we should not be put in the same catagory as CNA's or med techs. CMA's DO NOT normally work in a hospital setting, and we are specifically trained for office clinical duties. My education consists of everything you all had to take (A&P, pathology, pharmacology, medical terminology, etc), but we do not learn nursing skills because that is a different profession and is not in our scope of practice! I know that it is common for employers to hire "anyone off the street", but please don't put all CMA's in that catagory. I have worked hard for this, as all of you have, and consider myself a part of the health care team, along with LPN's and RN's, and feel that anyone involved in health care has been trained for a specific job and we should respect that.