MA vs. CNA in a hospital?

[gochicagobears]

So until today, when a nursing student friend of mine told me, I never knew that a MA could would outside of a Dr. office.

So now I'm wondering what an MA does in a hospital? I know that they do everything a CNA does and a little more, but I'm just wondering what the specifics are? Like, I would love to be on a surg floor, a peds unit, psych floor, or in the ER, what does an MA do in those depts?

This past summer, I did a student internship and one of my rotations was in a Peds Dr. office where I shadowed the MAs'. I HATED how all they did was the same thing over and over, take height, weight, temp, history, swab throats, test urine, and clean the room. ALL DAY LONG. I know that a CNA takes temp, weight, etc., but in a hospital setting, it seems a lot different to me, because I also shadowed a CNA in same day surg during one rotation, and I loved all the things she did. Maybe I just don't like the Dr. office setting haha.

[missnurse01, MSN, RN]

well in my 15 years I have worked all over the country and have never seen an MA in the hospital. Most states I have worked in have required everyone to be some type of pt care tech certified through the state. If your MA certificate will qualify you to become state certified as a tech or CNA then you should be able to do their jobs after some training.

However, much of all of our work in the nursing world is very redundant. Esp for cnas/techs...it is getting the vitals over and over, helping people up and down to the bathroom, helping them get cleaned up or bathed, help feeding them.

working in er (which in many areas you can get into if you are an emt by the way) you will have a lot of other duties, like splinting, etc. working in day surg is also very different then floor work, but still much of the same thing over and over. You might just like the fast pace.

good luck!

research you local hospitals to see how they hire/what they hire

[elkpark]

I've never encountered an MA working in a hospital (in many years, in a few different states).

[nursel56]

Neither have I. Although it gets somewhat confusing with the proliferation of new "tech" jobs such as Certified Medication Aide.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I work at a rehabilitation hospital that utilizes MAs as unit secretaries. Other than the occasional blood draw, they do not perform any hands-on patient care at my workplace.

The unit secretary sets up appointments, arranges transportation, transcribes doctors' orders, updates census, puts charts together, files paperwork, generates handwritten MARs when pharmacy has left for the day, inputs lab draw orders, creates patient labels, and completes a whole slew of random (mostly clerical) tasks.