Medical Assistants in the office

Specialties Ambulatory

Published

This is probably going to open a can of worms.............but how do you all feel about replacing nurses in the office setting with Medical Assistants? How (if at all) do you feel it affects patient care?

Do any of the MA's in your offices refer to themselves as "nurses"? Have you had any problems with the knowledge base of the MA's? How are they with patient education?

May be just my situation, but I have run across some significant problems in this area................and not sure how to address it...........or even if I can address it.

I'm not sure, I don't have an associate's degree in medical assisting. A medical assistant and a nurse are two different things. Perhaps someone wants to be a medical assistant and not a nurse, which seems obvious.

Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
Those are online for-profit schools!!! There are the same types of programs for nursing which is just an option to a local community college (or university for BSN)!! Not everyone pays that much to be a medical assistant!!!!!! That's like only providing examples for nursing degrees like Western Governors University online or whatever they are!

WGU isn't a good example considering it's where most nurses go to get the BSN because they are the most reasonably priced.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

I have a hard time carrying on conversations with people who speak like this!!!!!!

Can you give us an example of an AS degree in Medical Assisting from a community college?

You don't need to know where I live but my ending wage as a CMA was $18.90 and my starting wage for my current job is $31.92.

Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
You don't need to know where I live but my ending wage as a CMA was $18.90 and my starting wage for my current job is $31.92.

You could put the state.

Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
I have a hard time carrying on conversations with people who speak like this!!!!!!

Can you give us an example of an AS degree in Medical Assisting from a community college?

Exactly. I just looked up medical assisting at a college near me & it's an 11-week program. Graduates don't get a degree, just a certificate.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

Here's a list of AAS MA programs that I found. Not one of them was a community college program. All of them appear to be private, for-profit "career" colleges.

Medical Assistant Associate Degree | AAS in Medical Assisting

I'm from Minnesota. Many (if not all) community colleges in the metro offer an AAS in medical assisting. I just looked online for a AD in medical assisting program in Texas and I found one at San Antonio College. A local real community college. Not 34,000 to attend.

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Medical assistants have a huge, broad scope depending on where they work. I know many people that chose to get their associate's degree in medical assisting because they did not want to be a nurse. In addition to the high competition therefore no guarantee of starting an AD program for RN.

The absence of a scope of practice is not the same thing as a "huge, broad scope". The distinction is a lot more crucial than you seem to understand. A doctor may ask an assistant to do brain surgery if we're to follow that logic. A doctor has his own butt to protect, and his malpractice policy may have some fine print about that, which I understand that some do.

I know you didn't ask, but going to college for two years to become an MA when you want to be a nurse is in my opinion, almost a complete waste of time, but hopefully some of the pre-reqs transfer.

A nurse can work all the places an MA can work, but the reverse is not true.

Look for websites actually associated with a school, not the first that comes up in Google search (medicalassistantschools.com) haha!

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
You don't need to know where I live but my ending wage as a CMA was $18.90 and my starting wage for my current job is $31.92.

Apples and oranges. Compare starting salaries in both fields.

Medical assistants don't lack a scope of practice. I've already pointed out your statement that nurses can work everywhere a medical assistant can but the medical assistant can't work everywhere a nurse can. Medical assistants don't work in hospitals or long term care places. Or anywhere besides a clinic, basically.

+ Add a Comment