Can I Work as a Certified Nursing Assistant or Medical Assistant While in School?
Countless nursing students and pre-nursing students want (or need) to work while attending school and are seeking employment that will result in allied healthcare experience. This article focuses on the typical schedules of CNAs (certified nursing assistants) and MAs (medical assistants).
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Imagine you are a nursing student who wants to start accruing healthcare experience now. However, volunteering at a hospital or nursing home might be totally out of the question because you need to be paid for the services that you render. Volunteer experience is valuable in many ways, but let's face it: the unpaid experience will not keep the bill collectors away.
If you are a nursing student, you have several employment options at your disposal that will lead to direct or indirect healthcare experience. You can directly apply for entry-level positions as a direct care staff member (also known as a caregiver), dietary aide, hospital housekeeper (also known as environmental services technician), or unit secretary, and hope that you are hired. The aforementioned occupations generally do not require certification and can be learned with on-the-job training.
You also have the option of completing a relatively short training program to become either a certified nursing assistant (CNA) or medical assistant (MA). Both training programs can be completed within a matter of months. In addition, the tuition can be relatively inexpensive if you complete the training program at a community college, state-funded technical school, or adult education program. Beware of the for-profit entities that charge $15,000+ for the same CNA or MA training you would be able to obtain at a fraction of the cost elsewhere.
CNAs and MAs both provide hands-on patient care, albeit in different types of settings. While MAs are typically found working in clinics, doctors offices, community health centers, and other types of outpatient healthcare settings, CNAs usually secure employment at hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and most types of healthcare settings where inpatient care takes place.
With very few exceptions, most MAs work typical bankers' hours, which are Monday through Friday during the daylight hours. Some MAs work from 7 to 3:00pm, others work from 9 to 5:00pm, and a few work from 11 to 7:00pm. If you are a student who attends a brick-and-mortar nursing school, the customary working hours of the MA might be problematic because, in most cases, your schooling will be scheduled during the day. Although a handful of nursing schools are progressive enough to offer night programs to accommodate busy working adults with day jobs, the vast majority of schools of nursing have class offerings and clinical rotations strictly during daylight hours.
On the other hand, CNAs work various types of schedules. 12-hour shifts are popular at many inpatient healthcare facilities, and some workplaces even offer 16-hour shifts to enable employees to have four or five days off per week. The 8-hour shifts are normally from 7 to 3:00pm, 3 to 11:00pm, and 11 to 7:00am. Many of my classmates worked as CNAs on the 11 to 7:00am shift and attended school during the day. It was hard for these men and women, but they did it. Some students work three 12-hour shifts as CNAs on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays while focusing on school from Monday through Thursday.
Personally, I completed a training program to become a medical assistant and was never able to secure employment as a MA. I ended up accepting an entry-level position as a direct care staff member at a group home for developmentally disabled adults. My working hours were from midnight to 8:00am. I later became a licensed vocational nurse (LVN). When I eventually returned to school to become a registered nurse (RN), I worked 16-hour weekend double shifts every Saturday and Sunday as a LVN in a nursing home while using Monday through Friday to attend an RN bridge program full time.
In my humble opinion, the CNA role offers the most flexible scheduling for a nursing student who needs to earn money and gain valuable experience while attending school. The MA role is vital to healthcare, but the typical working hours are often too inflexible for many nursing students.
