ATTN: Becoming a Medical Assistant=Waste of Time

Nurses General Nursing

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i went to a school by the name of concorde career college( im sure sounds familiar) located in tx, tn, ca, and fl. this school, got me all excited by basically persuading me that i could be the equivalent to lpn status with the skills i was to learn in a "short"nine months and also guaranteed job placement assistance at the end of the course. before i went, i attempted to ask nurses that i had already been working with ( cna for 7 years), of their opinion about me attending to earn such title. many of them, didn't even know what a ma was or how you came about getting to be one, one lpn told me that it wasn't worth it and that it was a waste of time and money. but me, i was so determined to go to college and finish to get a degree in this field so that i could have a high skilled job while attending school to get my rn degree in the near future. i did training, did externship at a clinic, didn't get hired, and was only able to obtain 4 interviews out of 50 or more resumes sent out. then i thought, i should go ahead and get state certified, maybe that was what was keeping me from getting work. i was so anxious to get certified, that on my first attempt i was 4 points away from getting certified. :madface: i eventually found out that everywhere i go, i hear that this school has a reputation, i don't know about the other states, but the memphis, tn campus has a lot of reputation for sending students out on extern fairly skilled and not knowing anything that is truly required in the curriculum. i understand how important is to be certified, but still, you have to literally be experienced starting at 2 years even if you were, in a clinic. how are entry-level students supposed to practice their craft if they can't get in ?! i have been out of school a year and working odd end staffing jobs, its just not a great thing to pick up unless you are eager to just bein the medical field period. i'm gonna go prepare to finish getting my rn degree. and with a lasting note, i'm even somewhat skeptical about that , because the economy has made it where even rn's are havin a hard time getting work, that's krazy ! anyone considering, please go and do research on the school before you attend, this is 12 grand down the drain !:madface:

Specializes in Emergency Room.

i totally agree. i was a ma alittle over a year when i realized it was a waste of money and time, of course i learned things and gained some work experience but i would have rather started out as a LPN first and then RN.

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

I make more than three times as much as a new grad RN than I did when I was an MA. I don't regret becoming and MA, it was what was appropriate for me at that time in my life and got me a good taste of the medical field; plus the program was short so if I didn't like medicine I did not waste too much time (vs. the 5+ years I spending getting my BSN). Being an MA actually helped me on the NCLEX, as an MA I organized the sample closet for two offices once summer so I got familiar with many medications. I had 7-8 med questions on the NCLEX and out of those 7-8 there was only one med I had never heard of before.

Also I got my education at a JC in CA so the entire thing was WELL under $1,000.

Its an easy degree and easy certification if you want a quick job; but really it is more for some one like a mom who has a husband with a good job who has all her kids in school and wants to get out of the house.

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ma is a ton of money and it isn't the equivalent of a nurse no matter what they try and tell you. you also have more limited job opportunities because they aren't hired in all areas of healthcare. most mas end up in a lot of debt because they make slightly more than cnas and no where near rns. but pay a ton of money for their education. unfortunately we have heard about this quite a bit here.

why don't you try and get into a community college rn plan? the ma courses will definitely come in handy and you will have some background that will definitely help.

could not have said it any better-mines probably would have had a bunch of bad words :) worst mistake i could have made was going to school for this. and to make things worse, the area i live in offers the course for free-meanwhile i still owe thousands of dollars for (my opinion) a useless trade.

while i enjoyed being in a clinical setting and comforting patients and even doing phlebotomy at times, i felt like a professional brown noser. only there to soothe the physician's ego and order lunch :(

we live and we expensively learn sometimes i guess.

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I make more than three times as much as a new grad RN than I did when I was an MA. I don't regret becoming and MA, it was what was appropriate for me at that time in my life and got me a good taste of the medical field; plus the program was short so if I didn't like medicine I did not waste too much time (vs. the 5+ years I spending getting my BSN). Being an MA actually helped me on the NCLEX, as an MA I organized the sample closet for two offices once summer so I got familiar with many medications. I had 7-8 med questions on the NCLEX and out of those 7-8 there was only one med I had never heard of before.

Also I got my education at a JC in CA so the entire thing was WELL under $1,000.

Its an easy degree and easy certification if you want a quick job; but really it is more for some one like a mom who has a husband with a good job who has all her kids in school and wants to get out of the house.

When I 1st read this I thought it said you made 3x's as much as a RN being a MA :uhoh3: I was going to ask where you were working and give them a call :lol2:

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Specializes in Home Health, SNF.

Here in South Florida many doctor's offices use MA's. When you call an MD often you will get through to a message like "this is Dr. X's medical assistant, please leave a message", I always feel a bit uneasy. When I call a doctor's office about a change in one of my resident's condition, I would really lke to speak to a NURSE. I guess having an MA is more cost efficient, but I don't believe it's in the patient's best interest.

roxaNN:down::madface:

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I has several friends who trained as MA'a and I was already a CNA at that time. I have to say that I felt so bad for them. Because they were not recognized by Board of Nursing it was so hard for them to find jobs even though their knowledge was as much as mine and in some cases even more skills were learned than I did. But it was a HUGE debt when they were done. I just took a CNA course at a Community College and it was sooo sooo much cheaper than those private schools. Now Im a RPN in Canada ( two year program here plus 8 weeks preceptorship) and I have to say that my experiance as a CNA really helped me but I should have just done my RPN out of the gate, at least in the US its a shorter program and you are a skilled nurse, I think its crazy that they dare tell people that they will be like "nurses" I guess when you go to nursing school you will see the difference your self in the education.

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First of all, any community college will offer the same MA cert. and curriculum for a fraction of the cost. In looking at the curriculum I can see where the skills you learn will greatly help in nursing. However, I've heard many complain that they couldn't find work with an MA cert. Look into a site called MedHunters.com. You may have to consider relocating but I'm not sure how much it will be worth it to separate from your home town to go for a job that doesn't pay that great.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I agree, I would not feel comfortable speaking about the condition of a pt with a Medical Assistant. Most do not even have a governing body. I think if you asked the general public, most would say the same thing, They would feel allot more at ease if a nurse:nurse: was taking care of them verses a MA:nono:. Strange, but I really do think that it comes down to money as well. :twocents:

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Here we go again. . .I completed a MA (medical assisting) program in 2000, and an LPN/LVN program in 2005.

I never once worked as a medical assistant, even with my training and certificate. Even though I was sending out tons of resumes, the area was flooded with new MAs who were being churned into the job market by trade schools and business colleges every few months with promises of a "great career" and "good money."

The great career in medical assisting never came into fruition for me, and the money being offered to me was so horrible that even a single person would have difficulty supporting oneself on the low hourly pay.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I was able to obtain medical assistant training for $300 and obtained agency positions in several areas. What I suspect is that I had experience/training as a CNA, phlebotomist and in psych, which helped moreso than the training. They still didn't pay even as much as the CNA/tech positions I had over the years. Also, as mentioned earlier, many times, the medical assistant training course is offered in community colleges for $2000 and less.

I do believe that some of the information is helpful for nursing, but comparing medical assisting to even practical nursing is like comparing apples to oranges. I advise that if it is more than $2000, don't waste your time or money.

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Thanks everyone, for sharing your stories and its good to know that I'm not the only one from the few small bracket who has went through this, i had to vent ! LOL..but I am defintiely preparing to attend RN training, I actually have some pre-reqs already, thing is, I was expectin a microwave degree to work( 9 months) with while i got my RN degree in the process, but just didn't happened that way, but change of plans, i will make it happen ! Concorde gon have to wait a long a** time to get their 12 grand, SORRY ! LOL

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Specializes in new nurse.

I agree it is absolutely a waste of time. I did that and regretted, especially the $20,000 I paid at a career school. When I went to work they paid me $13.00 an hour, could barely put food on the table farless repay my loans. I was very frustrated so I went back to school an got my lpn.

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