Deluded Medical Assistant

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We have talked about this until I am sure we are blue in the face; but this reminded me of our many debates. There is a CNA at my job that is now taking a medical assisting course. Unfortunately, she is getting cocky and saying that she will know as much as nurses, and will be one. I wanted to scream to her that she may be frustrated to take this two year course only to possibly work in a physician's office for about $10 an hour with not much mobility.

I worked as a medical assistant before and while it is skill oriented and can in fact, give a foundation for nursing, it was limiting and I found that after I attended nursing school, that I knew nothing of nursing. I missed a great deal of the nursing cirriculum such as peds, ob and even med-surg. I do believe that the medical assistants are a vital part of the health care team that receives little recognition. They are talented, skilled and contribute much, but I wish that the schools would stop fooling the students.

I worked with a CNA at the nursing home who was going through an 18 month MA course. I thought it was a waste of money and time but she was so excited about it and really felt like she was going to be in the big time with her degree I didn't have the heart to be critical.

Live and learn, I guess.

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

And, it is easy to become deluded. Medical assistants are task oriented, however they do learn a great deal more than CNAs. And, depending on the practice they work for, they get involved with a great deal more. It is the limit of working in the physician's office that is the disadvantage.

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Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.
As an MA I totally admit I know very little amou the "medical" world. We MA do a vital job that is needed in offices and clinic settings, and are limited to that. There is a huge world of hospital, emergency,and other medical fields that I applaude those who can work in them.

I tell pt s that ask if I am a nurse that no , if I know an inch worth, a nurses learns a yard worth, and a doctor is the a mile. To put it simply.

I have a lot of respect for you being able to tell the truth. It would be so easy to just agree with a patient and let them think you are a nurse. That speaks volumes about your integrity.

I think being an MA is a great introduction to the medical field, and it will certainly help out when a person does go to nursing school. You will have a leg up on knowledge compared to your classmates. So it saves you a lot of trouble in the beginning. As you progress in school though, you and your classmates will be on the same level. You will all be learning things for the first time and it will boggle your mind.

When I say "you" I mean anyone reading this post who is an MA considering going to nursing school.

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Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.
Nursing has been romanticized for a long time, and I notice that people look for shortcuts to say that they are nurses; especially since it IS hard to enter into many LPN/RN programs.

One interesting observation I have always had is that many don't consider us LPNs to be nurses, either. It is felt that the course is too short, that we are 'pretend nurses, low paid nurses' and so on. Well, I do consider myself to be just what my title says: PRACTICAL nurse. We learned the nursing process, ongoing assessments, critical thinking and such, however, we cannot say, either that we are registered nurses or higher educated nurses because the scope of practice is different.

My cheapie school didn't delude us, either by telling us that we were to be nurses. We assisted the nurses in a different way, yes, but were not nurses. I just don't care for people being misleaded to invest a great deal of money and time into something and not be clear on what function they are actually performing.

Interesting. What I keep seeing in these posts is expensive school = more delusion. Cheapie school = keeping in touch with reality. I think your school did you a big favor by not letting you believe you are a nurse.

As for LVNs not being nurses, I really don't get that. It's ignorant and annoying. I'm an RN student and I'm in a summer program so that I might get my LVN license. I have learned way more about patient care in just six short weeks than I did in two semesters of RN school. RN school has its benefits, but when it comes to actual patient care, I think the "practical" training is valuable. I feel that for me it will be a huge shortcut in adjusting to managing mutliple patients. My clinicals skills are so much stronger. Now granted, years down the road an RN and I would probably be at the same level. But as for just starting out, I think I have the jump on nursing skills that would have taken me longer to acquire if I hadn't done this program.

But that's just me. My clinical skills are weak, so this program benefits me tremendously. Another person may do just as well without it. But I know if I didn't do this program, I would have been foundering and frustrated for a much longer time.

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.
This is intended as NO offense to you, but I am glad that my doctor has an LPN do his medication call-in refills.

I wasn't calling them in with critical judgment. All I did was say for verbatim what the doctor wrote down, word for word. Thats it, does not take an LPN to do that.

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A cousin's girlfriend graduated from a "medical assistant college" (whatever that is) and was not pleased to find that the best job she could land was about $12 an hour, and there would be plenty of competition for that. She had been led to believe she'd be in "nursing", and "the medical field". She's about as close to nursing and working "in the medical field" as I am to becoming a yacht captain --because I chartered a ride one afternoon!

Seriously, her mother told her that she wouldn't be a nurse, that for that she'd have had to go to nursing school, but somehow, someway, she figured she could "test out"!! I mean....c'MON! She knew she wasn't going to school for nursing but the school managed to convince her (why are they so gullible??) that MA and RN were practically the same thing, and it was just one test that stood between her and that license.

Oh, my.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
A cousin's girlfriend graduated from a "medical assistant college" (whatever that is) and was not pleased to find that the best job she could land was about $12 an hour, and there would be plenty of competition for that. She had been led to believe she'd be in "nursing", and "the medical field". She's about as close to nursing and working "in the medical field" as I am to becoming a yacht captain --because I chartered a ride one afternoon!

Seriously, her mother told her that she wouldn't be a nurse, that for that she'd have had to go to nursing school, but somehow, someway, she figured she could "test out"!! I mean....c'MON! She knew she wasn't going to school for nursing but the school managed to convince her (why are they so gullible??) that MA and RN were practically the same thing, and it was just one test that stood between her and that license.

Oh, my.

I am sure that I can 'test out' for the MA certification; in fact, I know an LPN student that did it. Don't know what the requirements were, but she did it. I want to look at one of their study guides just to see what it is, but I wouldn't bother. It is hard to classify them, because, like CNAs, they do perform certain nursing duties, and are, in fact, trained more than CNAs, but, are in fact, more limited in mobility than CNAs. I see no reason or opportunity to test out because too many portions of the program are missing to sit for either NCLEX-PN or especially the RN exam.

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