LPN working as MA while in school?

[Busia]

I just graduated this past May and passed my boards in June. I have a few gen eds left to complete for the RN program and then will be doing the LPN to RN bridge, part time. So it will be a while before I complete my ADN, at least 2 years. The next 2 or 3 semesters I can do all online (the generals and a few of the theory classes before I go back to clinicals).

The job market around here is tough for LPN's, even LTC facilities aren't hiring. I have a second interview today for a MA position at a really good facility- but I'm still on the fence about this job. It's in women's health, which I am interested in and could see myself working in after I complete my degree. But I feel like I worked so hard for that LPN title, and the pay for an MA here is terrible, at the lower end it's even less than I made as a CNA. (Hoping they wouldn't start me at the lowest pay, but even at the high-end starting pay is significantly less than an LPN.)

I think I am going to be offered a position in home health with another company, an LPN position, but I didn't feel real good about that company and am 99% sure I won't take it. The company is established, but new to this area, and I would be getting very minimal hours to start with too. I have apps out at a few different places for LPN positions, they are less hours but much much higher pay, and are actually for a nurse, not a medical assistant. And they would leave me more time to studying and would work with my school schedule once I do get back to in-person classes and clinical.

I just don't know if I should take the MA position if offered it and hope that the experience and the foot in the door at this facility will be enough, or hold out in hopes of an LPN position.

Has anyone else taken a MA position after getting their LPN license, did you regret it?

[caliotter3]

If employment is a must, and pickings are slim, take what you can get. But do not settle. Continue to look for the best you can do while not neglecting your nursing school responsibilities. Oh, how nice it would be if none of us had to work while going through nursing school, just like they tell us!