Medical Assistant or CNA

[Kjukich10]

My goal is to become an LVN but first I want to get my foot in the door. Should I go pay to go to school and become a Medical Assistant get hired at a hospital and work there for a year and then go back to school for the LVN program. Or get into the CNA program and get hired by a hospital and work there for a year then go back to school for the LVN program?

Please help!

[BinkieRN, BSN, RN]

I am a medical assistant and I do work in a hospital.

What kind of job do you have in the hospital? What are your job duties?

[PEBBLES1]

I Do Vital Signs, Venipucture, Injections, Pregnancy Test, Urine Dip Sticks And Obtain Reports. When I Worked For Rheum I Used To Do Ekg's And Start Iv's Because Some Pt's Would Get Infusions.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Something to consider would be whether you expected to work in a nursing home or medical office after graduation from the LVN program. If a medical office or clinic, I'd say the CNA experience won't be exceptionally useful. If a nursing home is your destination, then CNA experience would be VERY useful. In neither case would you need MA training to be a good LVN.

I'm leaving out the hospital option just because I don't know of any hospitals that hire LPN/LVNs anymore (at least not in my geographic region). If THAT's an option for you, definitely CNA training is the way to go. My area also does not use MAs in hospitals; if someone has an MA cert, they are going to be offered a care tech job (same thing the CNAs do).