Does anyone else find this offensive?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

"Fast paced multiple physician practice seeking fulltime Medical Assistant/LPN"

MEDICAL ASSISTANT/LPN?? I emailed them regarding their job posting and they said "its the same thing and they get paid the same". What are your thoughts?

Specializes in Nursing Education, CVICU, Float Pool.

I agree that I wouldn't say I was offended, well one because I'm not a nurse yet. I do, however, have a problem with many both in and outside of healthcare are referring to MA's as Nurses. I could care less of which is trained more to do what. I care about people thinking that certain people are nurses when they are in fact not. Just like in I was an MA I wouldn't want a nurse calling thmesleves a MA.

There was a time in my life that I wanted to be an MA, and most of the schools advertised were completely online that took about 7 to 9 months and then the last five weeks you would have to set up a clinical extership at a local doctors office etc.... Compared to clinical rotations in many different areas thorughout all of your schooling that LPNs do. Now it may be different with MA programs that you must physically attend, so don't think I'm trying to judge.

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I didn't post this thread to state that MA's were lower. That was not my purpose. I should not be called a MA when I am not and vice versa. That is what it is about. It is misleading to the patient. I do not have every qualification to be a MA just like an MA does not have every qualification to be an LPN. I don't see why anyone is getting offended.

I actually did get the job and wanted to make sure the office knew what they hired! I am not a MA.

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I didn't post this thread to state that MA's were lower. That was not my purpose. I should not be called a MA when I am not and vice versa. That is what it is about. It is misleading to the patient. I do not have every qualification to be a MA just like an MA does not have every qualification to be an LPN. I don't see why anyone is getting offended.

I actually did get the job and wanted to make sure the office knew what they hired! I am not a MA.

People are getting offended because the title of the thread is "Does anyone else find this offensive?" It's hard to have people not say they are offended or not when you are asking them if they are.

While a few times you did state that your intentions were to not put down MA's, even you stated:

megan3485 - "Yeah. They are just two very different things. They said they will pay $12 an hour. I'm not sure what salaries are for LPN's but it should be more than that. They worked hard to get where they are. They should be paid according to their skills."

That implies that MA's do not work hard to get where they are.

Anyways, I'm not offended. Don't have a reason to be anyway. Just trying to understand where everyone's coming from.

But congrats on the job!

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Specializes in Interested in Everything.

:clpty::dancgrp::ancong!: on getting the job. Here's a round of applause & dancing emotion-cons to celebrate.:yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah:

How is it misleading? Patients don't care who is taking their vital signs & chief complaint. All they care about is seeing & getting treated by the DOCTOR (or PA/NP). Not the LPN; Not the MA. Now that they KNOW you are an LPN are still getting paid the $12/hr?

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Specializes in ICU + Infection Prevention.

A lot of physician offices here will advertise MA or EMT. Crazy, eh?

There aren't many MAs and there are tons of EMTs.

A CNA or LPN could probably get the job if they wanted.

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Specializes in Psych, EMS.

Let's call a duck a duck. This is a turf war.

Just like how many physicians vie for limiting the scope and autonomy of NPs

CRNAs feeling AAs are not qualified

How back in the day, psychiatrists felt they should be the only ones to do psychotherapy

etc. etc...these are often disguised as "safety issues", but it's just another turf war.

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Specializes in ICU + Infection Prevention.

Or it is just the physician's office going "well an LPN is medically overqualified for what we need and clerically under-qualified, but there are lot of unemployed ones so if one wants to work for cheap, we'll open this position to them."

LPN can be had with 1 year of schooling here. Around here MA is anything from a 1 year certificate program to a 2 year Associates Degree. As an EMT I took an MA pharmacology course just for fun. It was a joke in that you could pass the course without learning a thing, but if you wanted to you could learn a lot. Then again, that is how most school is outside of fields like engineering.

I NEVER see jobs advertised for LPNs around here save for a few nursing homes. I never have.

Can someone tell me what an LPN is going to do for the average family practice office that a MA can't? This is an honest question.

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It is common around this area to advertise for either a MA or LPN for Dr.'s offices. Either could do the job.

It really comes down for me that I want to know to know who is talking to me or taking care of me and what their qualifications are (MA, LPN, RN, NP, PA, MD). It is the right of the public to know this also. It helps them to make an informed decision. I have had receptionists try to triage me for a doctor's appt. Calling yourself a nurse when you aren't is fooling the public. Calling yourself a doctor - the same. Nothing to do with who is better and who works harder to get to their title.

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Specializes in Hospice / Psych / RNAC.

In answer to #55 work for less money. Every MA I know works for $3 less then the average LPN I know. Which means since they both can do the same job it will the MA that gets hired.

Don't worry though; in the new future they will come out with another type of MA which will be the assistant to the MA who will work for even less money. Ya know, to save us. The MA's that are taking offense shouldn't, it's all about politics and money. The offense part of all this is that in the end nurses stick together and the MA is a threat to the job security of it because they will work for less money (that's my experience in Hawaii and Oregon). So no one is putting the MA down; it's a nurse thing.

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Specializes in Family Medicine.
Becoming a Certified Medical Assistant and becoming an LPN both take about a year. I don't understand why we are assuming that one education is more difficult than the other and I mainly don't understand why LPN's "deserve" more than CMA's. I think that's offensive, honestly.

My school offers both the MA and LPN program. The MA program is 55 credits and the LPN program is 66 credits. However, 5 of those credits are generic courses like interpersonal communication (blah!), college survival skills (big waste), and intro to practical nursing (useless for people who already know the basic duties of an LPN.)

Both have to take biology, both take pharmacology, LPN program has more clinical. MA program has more med term and also a human disease course. MA also has more office type work where the LPN learns the foundations of nursing.

They are both certificate programs, not a degree program. They both take exams to be certified or licensed.

The way I see it, they are difficult in their own way.

I'm neither an LPN or a CMA, but I don't see the big deal with the job posting. The office wants someone who can do all of those tasks and they recognize that both an LPN and CMA can do those. The office is actually being smart by doing this because they will have more applicants to choose from rather than if they just limited their search to a CMA or LPN only.

I was thinking the same thing because a lady I know just finish schooling to become a registered medical assistant and the program was similar in length to a LPN program. The classes were also similar. I do think its unfair to lump medical assistants who get trained on the job and have no formal education in the same category as a well educated LPN though. I also think a LPN for this position should be paid more than a registered medical assistant because they do take extra classes and the average pay for a LPN is significantly higher than medical assistant's average pay. Since the office in this post doesn't plan on paying a LPN more, it seems unlikely that many LPN's will apply for this position.

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I don't think it's the same thing. The scope of practice is different. LPN's can do more that MA's. My family doc's MA introduces herself as "Nurse Stacy". It drives me mad! MA's are not nurses! I want to say something about it, but then again is it really worth it?

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Specializes in geriatrics.

Hi. I don't think anyone was saying anything against MA's here. Although the roles are complimentary, and we all work together, it is not ethical for people to refer to anyone as a "nurse" or "RN" unless they are. As far as I know, MA's have a different role.

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