Medical Assistants the new RNs???

[ayorenee]

Is it me or are more and more doctor's offices replacing RNs with MAs? Some places go as far as letting them do histories, injections, and give results. As a nurse I have worked as a patient care tech/cna but I also know the level of critical thinking it takes to be an RN so it does bother me that MAs seem to be given a lot of RN responsibilities. As fellow nurses I wanted to know your thoughts?

[OCNRN63, RN]

Not exactly a new phenomenon.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

Yes, this is common in physician office practices.

[ayorenee]

Well I only have 3 years of nursing experience so it's new to me.....

[RNperdiem, RN]

Oh yes, for a long time now.

The only RNs I encounter these days is the NP at my child's neurologist office and the telephone triage nurse at my OB-GYN. There are a couple of LPNs here and there, but otherwise MAs run the show at doctors' offices.

[ayorenee]

Yeah I am definitely starting see this as I look at jobs and even in my own clinic...I am not sure if I want to return to the hospital setting

[roser13, ASN, RN]

You will be lucky to find a practice that continues to hire RN's or LPN's. In my area of the country, I have found that mostly only OB/GYN practices still utilize nurses. Definitely not surgeons or PCP practices. They hire MA's (churned out like crazy by for-profit schools) and train them to give injections, take vitals, etc. It's been going on for many, many years now.

You can find all kinds of threads about this topic on AN.com.

[samirish]

Where I am located, the majority of clinics/doctor offices are staffed with MA's. LTC with LPN's and hospitals with RN's.

[Quickbeam, BSN, RN]

I haven't seen an RN in an MD office in forever. I always ask, too. They dress up the MAs in scrubs with a fancy name tag with no credentials. I also report the facility to the nursing board if I catch the MAs calling themselves nurses. Because I'm a cranky old broad!

[Reese2012]

My mom works in a outpatient clinic and within the last year they fired all of the R.N.'s (except her) and replaced them with MA's. They said that R.N.'s cost too much and that they wanted to stay on budget. The only reason they kept my mom around is because the clinic needed at least one nurse present while they are open

[BrandybunsRN]

The office I am in, we have 1/2 RN's and 1/2 cardiac techs, zero MA's. Here in Oregon a MA does not even have to have graduated high school in order to be a MA. So the health system I work for has developed a scope of practice for MA's - limiting the things they are allowed to do. So the "plan" is eventually to start hiring MORE RN's in place of MA's.

I guess I'm just a lucky one! Between my 3 offices I have a staff of 9 nurses (including myself as the supervisor, but still taking assignments on a daily basis), and 12 cardiac techs.

[LuxCalidaNP]

I will vouch for RNs in the outpatient setting:

I work at a large FQHC Family Practice, where we see up to 300 visits a day. Our nursing team has had to do a lot of provider education and "reset" our facility's understanding of nurses, but we have become an integral role, beyond just "the grey area."

Our nurses do uncomplicated follow-ups, nursing procedures, education, med administration, triage, some home visits, case management, and TONS of wound care, all of which are beyond the scope of practice of medical assistants. When I came on board we cracked down hard on providers referring to their MAs as "their nurse," and really clarified the role. I am happy to report that we have really stepped up the level of care our nurses provide, and work hard to clarify to our patients the difference between the wonderful people checking them in and helping their providers and their clinic RNs. It can be done!