This is probably going to open a can of worms.............but how do you all feel about replacing nurses in the office setting with Medical Assistants? How (if at all) do you feel it affects patient care?
Do any of the MA's in your offices refer to themselves as "nurses"? Have you had any problems with the knowledge base of the MA's? How are they with patient education?
May be just my situation, but I have run across some significant problems in this area................and not sure how to address it...........or even if I can address it.
I don't understand why this thread has continued on the way it has. I don't understand why am27 appears to be so persistently antagonistic and provocative. You said much earlier that you have seen MAs run circles around RNs in so many areas. Ok, whatever. What's your point now?
It's one thing to debate and discuss different opinions. It's another thing to keep arguing about something on a public forum. I wish someone would remove this thread.
I am currently a CMA. The doctor offices that I have worked at...I was not referred to as a nurse.
My job duties were to screen patient for the medical hx, check weight, set the room up, assist the dr, call in rx, send lab specimens off, schedule outpt px, call pts for test results, give injections, phlebotomy, check bp, EKGs, (know how to do IVs and Caths but never done them on anybody other than a dummy)and stock supplies.
I have even worked in OR a couple of times assisting and I truly loved that. The only thing I could not do that a LPN or RN could not do was ?. I did not want to be referred as a nurse because I felt that I was not licensed. I am also cross trained for the front office as well. I am not putting anybody down, but that is the reason I am trying to go into RN. I want to be somebody with respect. As a CMA I feel like I am nobody but I can do all of the above. Does this make sense?
My general observation has been that MAs, CNAs and techs are task oriented, while nurses utilize a critical thinking process to provide care.
When asked what my job as a nurse is, I don't list tasks, as this writer did above. "My job duties..."
Nurses understand this. I don't have the energy to explain it to UAP. All I can say is, when you become a nurse, then you will understand.
To this day it still irks me that my ex-boyfriend said his SIL was a nurse. When I learned she was an office MA, he said, "well, she does everything a nurse does."
Assess. Diagnose. Plan. Implement. Evaluate. This is the heart of what nursing is. Not a list of tasks.
Recently at my doctor's office, an MA began telling me her frustrations of having the knowledge and education of a nurse, but not the title nor the pay. She's on a search for a nursing program that accepts her MA classes as transfer classes. She "refuses" to attend a program in which she has already "learned everything they teach."
I think the fight in trying to get society to understand a nurse's role is futile. At least that's what I'm learning.
Specializes in Medical-Surgial, Cardiac, Pediatrics.
My general observation has been that MAs, CNAs and techs are task oriented, while nurses utilize a critical thinking process to provide care.
When asked what my job as a nurse is, I don't list tasks, as this writer did above. "My job duties..."
Nurses understand this. I don't have the energy to explain it to UAP. All I can say is, when you become a nurse, then you will understand.
To this day it still irks me that my ex-boyfriend said his SIL was a nurse. When I learned she was an office MA, he said, "well, she does everything a nurse does."
Assess. Diagnose. Plan. Implement. Evaluate. This is the heart of what nursing is. Not a list of tasks.
Recently at my doctor's office, an MA began telling me her frustrations of having the knowledge and education of a nurse, but not the title nor the pay. She's on a search for a nursing program that accepts her MA classes as transfer classes. She "refuses" to attend a program in which she has already "learned everything they teach."
I think the fight in trying to get society to understand a nurse's role is futile. At least that's what I'm learning.
As Nurses, we are able to frame medical responses differently because of our training and our education. We spent years learning about disease and disease process as well as countless hours administering medications and caring for sick patients in the hospitals. We undestand the BIgger picture.
So please identify your self by your title and be proud of who you are and what you do..MAs are a valuable asset to most offices but recognize your limitations as an MA and that your effectivenss in some areas will be limited by your background
Well said. I'd like to use this in response to a previous poster who stated she called a patient explaining that her BG readings were high, and that the doctor wanted to further assess the situation. That is ALL that should have been said.
The poster wrote how she called the patient telling the patient that his readings were high and that he might have pre-diabetes so he needs to come back in. That is beyond the scope of an RN let alone an MA. NEVER NEVER NEVER elude to a diagnosis. EVER.
As an MA, that is GREAT that you know a reading could indicate diabetes. But clearly you don't know that BG readings don't differentiate between "pre-diabetes" and diabetes. A1C levels do.
Your job and scope only allow you to relay the numbers and state that the doctor would like to further assess. Was the patient on steroids? Why is that important? A nurse would know the importance, but even we cannot state or elude to a diagnosis. We know a lot of things, but we don't get our panties in a bunch because it is not within our scope to discuss certain things. Like what their test results MAY mean.
We are not offended that we are not allowed to do or say certain things. We understand our role. We are proud of our role. MAs, be proud of your role. I am not diminishing your knowledge by stating that you have a scope to stay within.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I don't understand why this thread has continued on the way it has. I don't understand why am27 appears to be so persistently antagonistic and provocative. You said much earlier that you have seen MAs run circles around RNs in so many areas. Ok, whatever. What's your point now?
I just want to say that I did notice how old the thread is. It's from October 2002, but it was revived a couple of times and including some from earlier this year in April and May, so I just figured it had fought it's way back to life.
I really only replied to the antagonistic person so that others who might read this thread wouldn't be misinformed by the inaccurate information. We do tend to let threads on topics that have been discussed more than once stay up when they don't technically violate Terms of Service.
If you have any doubt, I think the Admins would like you to use the report button. Let them handle it. They do a great job and sometimes it's a tough judgement call.
I don't think your offending anyone, but stating how you feel. To agree with an above post, I too am 'sick of it'. Sick of being degraded everytime I turn around by nurses because I'm not one. Just the other day I called a patient to tell her her blood sugar results, which were high for the third time in a row. I explained to her that the Dr was concered that she may have pre-diabetes and we needed to do some follow-up. Well, she cursed me out and told me about 10 times that's she's an RN, and she KNOWS I'm ONLY a CMA, and therefor, didn't know what I was talking about. What the *ell?? Ya know, nothing in life is fair. So nurses aren't the only ones in the medical world anymore. I'm tired of it. Well, my DR ended up calling the nurse back, repeating the same things I had told her and she was like, "OK Dr. I understand, blah, blah, blah." I once had an RN with a BSN take a triage call from a patient who stated he'd just done his blood sugar reading at home and it was 825. She asked me if it was OK for him to wait 2 days to see the doctor, or should he come in right away? Hello? Who is supposed to know more??? Stupidity and ignorance can be found on any level. Let's not forget the time an LPN instructed a patient to use an alcohol swab on her bottom for a clean catch urine because she couldn't find the proper swabs, and though it would be just as effective. See what I'm saying?
You were going beyond your scope of practice by stating the numbers could indicate pre-diabetes. Just because the doctor turned around and said the same thing, doesn't mean you were right in what you did.
That is beyond the scope of an RN let alone an MA. NEVER NEVER NEVER elude to a diagnosis. EVER.
As an MA, that is GREAT that you know a reading could indicate diabetes. But clearly you don't know that BG readings don't differentiate between "pre-diabetes" and diabetes. A1C levels do.
Your job and scope only allow you to relay the numbers and state that the doctor would like to further assess. Was the patient on steroids? Why is that important? A nurse would know the importance, but even we cannot state or elude to a diagnosis. We know a lot of things, but we don't get our panties in a bunch because it is not within our scope to discuss certain things. Like what their test results MAY mean.
We are not offended that we are not allowed to do or say certain things. We understand our role. We are proud of our role. MAs, be proud of your role. I am not diminishing your knowledge by stating that you have a scope to stay within.
I see that the moderator deleted some posts, although I don't know which ones were so offensive as to require removal. In any event, add technologists giving not only diagnoses but procedure. I may have, previously, referenced having a stress echo technician, saying "Stent, stent, stent," even though the equipment was broken, and with the cardiologist present? In any event, I did not have a cardiac catheterization. But I saw this technologist in passing, and she asked me if I'd had the procedure yet. I replied that I hadn't, but how come they still can't come up with an ejection fraction, from this evaluation done six months ago. One thing, though: the value of BSN and above input is critical to health and well-being. The physicians aren't, for the most part, providing information, even when asked. I'd like to see RNs given the legal and professional support most deserve in providing direct patient communication and care.
s/he was not going beyond her scope if that's what the provider instructed him/her to do, which is what I gather happened. It's unfair that everyone is accusing this MA of coming up with that on her own. nowhere does it say that she was not instructed to say that or that she made her own assessment after gathering data. if the patient does have elevated blood glucose levels, it very well may be that it is still "pre-diabetes." how do we not know that the patient had three random blood glucose levels that were slightly elevated and they wanted to confirm it with an A1C? there are many different scenarios that can be explained just as how this poster described it. medicine is NOT black and white, therefore it's just incorrect for you to make a wild guess about the events explained here.
This is all so bizarre...
You were going beyond your scope of practice by stating the numbers could indicate pre-diabetes. Just because the doctor turned around and said the same thing, doesn't mean you were right in what you did.
That is beyond the scope of an RN let alone an MA. NEVER NEVER NEVER elude to a diagnosis. EVER.
As an MA, that is GREAT that you know a reading could indicate diabetes. But clearly you don't know that BG readings don't differentiate between "pre-diabetes" and diabetes. A1C levels do.
Your job and scope only allow you to relay the numbers and state that the doctor would like to further assess. Was the patient on steroids? Why is that important? A nurse would know the importance, but even we cannot state or elude to a diagnosis. We know a lot of things, but we don't get our panties in a bunch because it is not within our scope to discuss certain things. Like what their test results MAY mean.
We are not offended that we are not allowed to do or say certain things. We understand our role. We are proud of our role. MAs, be proud of your role. I am not diminishing your knowledge by stating that you have a scope to stay within.
pfchang
370 Posts
I don't understand why this thread has continued on the way it has. I don't understand why am27 appears to be so persistently antagonistic and provocative. You said much earlier that you have seen MAs run circles around RNs in so many areas. Ok, whatever. What's your point now?