CMA to RN???

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I am a Certified Medical Assistant with 10 years experience and an AS in liberal arts from Excelsior, along with many other certificates. I am looking to eventually get my RN, but keep hitting brick walls at every school I try. Of course, there is a ton of controversy about CMA's vs. LPN's and I am not here to dicuss that. I cannot find a school that will accept the CMA credential and let me finish a nursing program without starting from scratch, basically saying I have no clinical experience/education which is crazy! The frustrating thing for me is that I have as much experience if not more than my friends who are nurses. The job I have now is the same exact one as an RN had for 20 years. I was also thinking of trying to get an LPN by equivalency. I was wondering if there is anybody out there in my situation?

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Specializes in med surg, ldrp, md office.

I myself was a CMA for 12 years. I once had the same feeling as you. i looked into many schools. Since there was nothing available to bridge to nursing courses or challenge exams, and believe me I looked, I enrolled in Lpn schooland started from scratch. I certainly had an advantage in all my courses and even graduted first in my class. With that said, I will say there is a big difference between LPN and CMA. Acute care was a basis of study and you learn alot more than you think you may know as a CMA. Since being a LPN I have worked in med surg and LDRP which is a far cry from anything I did as a CMA in an office. If it is your desire to further your education, just think of the advantage you will have with your experience. Best of LUCK

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

Yup, Jeepgirl said what I was going to say -- you might be out of luck as far as getting any kind of credit for your CMA, but you'll definitely have a leg up where knowledge and experience is concerned.

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

my advice to you is take the opportunity to go through nursing school and skip the shortcuts. may not be what you want to hear but the truth is that being a cma and a nurse is 2 different monsters. focus is different, education is different and depth is different. i know this because i have done both. you will be surprised just how different the two are when you are done. there is no way to obtain a lvn equivalency unless you are a military medic and i am not sure how many states do that anymore. good luck to you.

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i am the only CMA where i work. there are about 8-9 nurses. For some reason, all of them think they are better than me just because they are nurses. in fact, i do most of their job. They get paid 30-40hr while i do most of their work for less than half that. I asked for more money, but my reply was "the nurses have to use their brain more" Then i started thinking of going back to get my RN degree. The minute i said something, all the other nurses "all of a sudden" wanted to go back to school. This made me think that they are trying to compete with me and not be equal to me. Most of them are lazy and really dont respect me. Whenever i have a problem with one of them, the NCM does not have my back. But believe me, she has theirs. I do know that there are other reasons why they do that i dont wish to get into. So i have decided not to express any interested of going back to school-at least to them. I have decided to be an ultrasound tech.

Anyway, I just think just because nurses give meds and CMA dont, we should get the same pay. I know that many people would disagree but thats my opinon

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I'm also a CMA and I've only worked in the field for 1.5 years but I've proven myself more than some RNs I work with. I find it very frustrating that there is no program to teach the depth these RNs are speaking of because I've already been trained in all the same medication administration and venipuncture as any RN I've worked with as well as all of the systems, functions, etc. I already have an associates degree also, so if anybody knows a way please reply!!!

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I find it very frustrating that there is no program to teach the depth these RNs are speaking of

:confused:

My answer would be that the program that would teach to that depth is the ADN or BSN.

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Thank you, the problem is an ADN is an RN w/ an associate degree...I already have one, I understand the BSN would be much more in depth, but why is there no bridge program from CMA to RN. I'm not denying that you have further depth as an RN, what I'm asking is-does anybody know of a program that offers such a bridge?

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Oh, OK I was confused thinking you were asking about a CMA program to teach at more depth. I think part of it is in nursing programs the techniques and skills are taught along with the rationales and nursing process, yada yada....in the same course. The only way I can envision any sort of advanced entry track for CMAs is if the course were accelerated based on a skills test ahead of time, so you would spend less time learning skills you already know and concentrate on the academic differences (like care plans, more in depth pathophysiology and pharmacology, etc...But I don't know how much time that would save.

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

the reason there are no such programs is because a cma and nurse are two different professions...nursing is so much more in depth and the knowledge base is so much wider...many cma's say i do the same job as the lvn or the rn ...sure you may in the office setting but where else can you go . as a cma you are not interchangeable with a lvn or rn in the nursing home or hospital ....i am not trying to be mean or rude just telling it how it is ..i have been a cma and hit a dead end road, so i returned to lvn school....the difference in the two jobs is like night and day..the only way anyone can realize this is to be a cma then a licensed nurse....

denise rn

thank you, the problem is an adn is an rn w/ an associate degree...i already have one, i understand the bsn would be much more in depth, but why is there no bridge program from cma to rn. i'm not denying that you have further depth as an rn, what i'm asking is-does anybody know of a program that offers such a bridge?
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Specializes in Psych, LTC, Acute Care.
the reason there are no such programs is because a cma and nurse are two different professions...nursing is so much more in depth and the knowledge base is so much wider...many cma's say i do the same job as the lvn or the rn ...sure you may in the office setting but where else can you go . as a cma you are not interchangeable with a lvn or rn in the nursing home or hospital ....i am not trying to be mean or rude just telling it how it is ..i have been a cma and hit a dead end road, so i returned to lvn school....the difference in the two jobs is like night and day..the only way anyone can realize this is to be a cma then a licensed nurse....

denise rn

i have to agree with denise,

cma's may know some of the skills that some lpn's do. but you don't have the theory, nursing process, disease process, careplan experience, assessment skills and everything else that is learned in nursing school. there is so much more to nursing that a few clinical skills. that is why you don't see such programs as cmato rn. good luck getting into rn school. you will see that there is a difference in so many ways.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
I've already been trained in all the same medication administration and venipuncture as any RN I've worked with as well as all of the systems, functions, etc.

Nursing school teaches more than skills and systems/functions. Someone told me once that a nurse gets paid not for what he/she does, but for what he/she knows. If you go to nursing school, I think you'll understand that a bit more -- I know I did. I was a paramedic with a degree when I went through nursing school, and I still learned so much. Good luck!

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