Medical assistant before RN program

Nursing Students General Students

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Hi,

I have to wait until spring 2007 to start a RN associates program. Is getting a certificate as a medical assistant or some other medical cert. worth the time, money and effort? If so what stepping stone prior to school would be most beneficial?

Thanks for any help.

Specializes in Urgent Care.

I have a 2 year medical assistant degree, and unfortunately none of my credits transferred over into the nursing program aside from a lab class that I can use as an elective. It is definately beneficial as I have been working ambulatory Urgent Care for many years and have had alot of patient contact. I would have benefitted more by taking the LPN program instead, but my school didn't offer it at the time. That was during the " phasing out" of LPN's.

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

The vocational schools that are set up to train CNA's and MA's (medical assitants) are expensive. If you can afford it, fine. The previous poster was correct--none of the classes you take at the vocational school will transfer to an accredited college. However, you can probably do as well working at Taco Bell or McDonalds if you need money right now. If you want to get into a medical setting you could look for job openings in nursing homes and hospitals for now that are non-clinical. Once you are in your clinical nursing classes you should be able to get a CNA or nurse tech job.

I was in a similar situation before I started nursing school and I took a nurse aide class that was offered by a nursing home. The class was pretty much free there are a few nursing homes sort of near me that do this to get new nurse aides interested in working there, but at my nursing home there was no obligation to work there after the class. It was definitely worth the time and the experience I gained from doing that and then working as a CNA has helped me immensely in nursing school. See if there are hospitals or nursing homes in your area that offer classes like this. If they aren't free they might be less expensive than taking a medical assistant course at a tech school.

I'm still working on my prereq's for admission to a BSN program, but wanted to say that in my area, (SE MI) many nursing homes will train you. Some doctor's offices will as well, but in those cases, it seems you have to be in the right place at the right time. There are always ads in the paper here indicating, "No experience necessary, will train." If it's something you're interested in, it certainly couldn't hurt to call around or check the papers. :)

Good luck with everything! :D

Tiffany

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