Hey everyboody I would really like some feedback from all you MAs out there about my current situation. I just graduated from school and got my CMA in june 2006. now I am really feeling like I wasted my time becoming a medical assistant, little did I know that the pay is peanut, the appreciation is less than peanuts and we are the least respected members of the health care field. I am so sick of people telling me, why did you go for that, you can make more money as a nurse aide, which is sad but true,I only make 9.00 per hour. Also, when I went to job shadowing at a local hospital back when i was in school, the nurse who I was shadowing said,"what nursing program do you go to", when i told her I was goingforMA I.heard her saying to another nurse: " so, why are they having MAs shadowing nurses, it's not like they can learn anything from us, they don't do sh*t" Then they both started laughing, I was soooo embarassed. Not to mention, there are some really mean, uppity doctors in this world who treat their MAs like crap, everytime I talk to one of my former classmates they say how mean the doctor they work for is, or how their pay is crappy. I'm starting to wish I went to LPN school when I had a choice between the two, Now I have to wait until 2008 beacuse I am too late for admission to the LPN school in my area, which burns me up!! I feel like a year of my life is down the tubes,and I don't feel like my certification matters at all. Relocation is not an option so I guess I am stuck till august 2008 when nursing school starts. Has anyone else felt that they wasted their time going to an MA program?? I know that alot of people on this site really believe in MAs and all that, but I am totally feeling useless and underappreciated, I just want some feedback and thoughts.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: CMA

Are You Still In School? No

Are You Working? yes

I am a MA for 20 years. 15 years ago we went to Alaska,there I went to work as a ER Tech and made good money.Four years ago we came back to WA state, I got my AS degree and got certified. Last winter we went for my husbands job to California, I worked as a CMA in an Urgent Care that was only staffed by CMAs, no LPN or RNs.Salary was less then what I made 20 years ago as a MA in WA. And we did everything Patient care,Phlebotomy,limited x ray,Pharmacy call, Patient Ed, etc.If I would be single I would have not been able to support myself on this job. A job were they prefered MA's with an AS degree !!!! So who can take this serious as a job.
I truly loved the work with all the versatillity of the job. But love doesn't feed me or makes my house payments.
No we are back in WA, again I am working in an Urgent care. Still peanuts for pay and sorry smiles from RN's,some who are total clueless (not their fault, since their are newgrads ), but think they are sooo above me, at least I am doing this for 20 years.
Very frustrating. I gott of my frustrated butt, and went back to school for a degree in Respiratory Therapy. It is also a AS Degree and when I am done in about 6 months my income will more than double. I am happy about that, but I always loved medical assisting and I will miss it.Regulation of the MA Practice and a decent wage is so needed. Or the loss of great MA's is unavoidable.
Okay now I am done with my sob story.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: CCMA,ER Tech,RTS

Are You Still In School? RT Program

Are You Working? Yes

Becoming a MA was a TOTAL waste of time! Although I think I am making more then a lot of y'all ($15.50/hr), it still doesn'tt cut it! I am in school working on a degree in mortuary science that after I finish will land me a job making 3 times as I do as a medical assistant.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: MA, DT, CNA

Are You Working? yes

Entering the medical assisting field was the best I could have done. I found it to be challenging, fulfilling, and rewarding.

As a married person, in a two-member household, with the husband the main "bread winner", my income hardly was the top motivator or main issue.

Medical assisting was what I wanted to do, for me and my community, and the money was simpy regarded as the icing on the cake.

However, that's how it always worked for me. I guess, nowadays, with more single mothers, and more single parent house-holds, along with rising cost of living, as well as personal expectations, needs, and wishes, families need the money more than ever; understandably so.

Nevertheless, there are a number of medical assistants who still do it just fine on the salaries they get. And a small number do it mainly just for the love of it...

----------

By the way... I would love to sit down with anybody who calls their education, and work experiences a "total waste of time". That just gets me.

I think people need to learn to enjoy the good things in live, and turn the not so good (lemons) into lemonade! I for one, would never call my work or education a total wast of time. I don't see it that way... and I have no reason to do so.



Danni R.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: Website Owner/Site Admin

I understand your frustration. A lot of the things that you have said aided (but was not the main reason) in my decision to enter nursing school. I do not feel it was a waste however. It was a great stepping stone.

I don't feel that education is ever a waste of time. As an MA you get great exposure to the healthcare field and loads of experience. There are very few things I regret in life, and education and experiences are not one of them.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: LPN

Are You Still In School? yes

Are You Working? yes

I daresay that those who NEVER find any "work experiences" in the MA field (and there are many,many of them) ask themselves if all of it was worth it. If it kept them out of another medical program for a few years,the first year in school and the second year looking for a job,then I would think they would say no,it wasn't worth it. If they find themselves back to waiting tables,or cashiering in a grocery store,or cleaning hotel rooms,can you say to them that the MA diploma was worth every penny they will be doling out for the next several years?

Your Professional Title/Credentials: RMA

I still think that MA school was a waste! I guess it is good for some but I should have reached for something higher the first time around. I'm sure we all know or work with other "MA's" who were hired right of the street and did the whole on the job training thing. These people are making the same as me and I have a degree! As far as the pay...yes you can live on it if you have to ( I'm from a two income household and together we are doing well) but, there is no way that a single person let alone a single person with kids could live on this. Medical assisting is a good steping stone for anyone who wants to get there foot in the door but why pay $4,000 and up to just get your foot in? doesn't it make more sence to aim higher and "open the door" all the way for yourself?

Your Professional Title/Credentials: MA, DT, CNA

Are You Working? yes

Wait a minute,are you saying there are MAs who not only were hired off the street, but are making as much as you,which is way over the average?! I would be bitter too! So they STILL,in this day and age, will hire just anyone without any training beforehand,even with the glut of MA programs that are around in every state? How in the WORLD do they get hired?

Your Professional Title/Credentials: RMA

None of the medical assistants I worked with in my entire career, were ever hired "off the street". Where does this come from??? I think this is a bit of an exaggeration.

I have never, never, never seen that. Not right off the street! Can you explain what you mean???

Your Professional Title/Credentials: Website Owner/Site Admin

This is true of many offices in this area ( Maryland). I work with two girls who have never had any formal training (ie - collge/vocational) and are working along side of me. One is making $16/hr! They both started out as front office receptionist and one day were put in the clinic and learned the ins and outs from other medical assistants. So, yes they were off the street. I know many medical assistants who received their training this way. One of the girls was a nursing assistnt so I can kinda see that but the other on went to beauty school. I see ads in the newspaper all the time that say no experience required.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: MA, DT, CNA

Are You Working? yes

When I got my first MA job in 1993, I was the only certified MA, the very first they hired. They trained people of the street to get weights, temps, and room patients. Some did eye exams and other things as well and their title was " medical assistant". This has since changed in WI but it was commonplace 15-20 years ago.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: LPN

Are You Still In School? yes

Are You Working? yes

I posed a question a while back on the "Regulating the MA Practice" thread regarding this "hiring off the street" and nobody answered it. Apperantly it still goes on,probably more than you think. Any field that is unregulated is going to have that kind of crap going on.

BradT, well...

To say "right off the street" paints a little bit of a different picture in my mind's eye.

Now that you have explained...

I agree, a nursing assistant isn't exactly a medical assistant. Also, a person with a beauty school / cosmotoloy diploma isn't what we know as medical assistant.

However, both are someone who have gone through formal taining programs and invested time and money into their skills and education. I can see how a nursing assistant can be RETRAINED, since they bring skills to the table that can be carried over into the medical office.

Same with the person who went to the Beauty school program, where she learned to provide professional care and treatment of clients’ hair, skin and nails.


Some of her skills include:

--Washing, cutting, and shaping hair and hair pieces

--Straightening or curling hair

--Dyeing, bleaching or tinting hair

--Styling wigs and hair pieces

--Performing head or neck massages

--Providing therapeutic advice and/or treatment to clients with scalp conditions

--Removing or bleaching facial and body hair

--Applying cosmetics and makeup

--Cleaning, trimming and polishing nails


So, that's not exactly "rigth off the street" as you mentioned.


However, you are right... What these women have done is to "beat real medical assistants" right to the punch, when it came to their job application, and resume.


Perhaps it was their letters of recommendation, or a long standing record of consistent employment, perhaps they impressed the employer through their professionalism, or professional appearance? Who knows...


I wouldn't judge them and see them as people "right off the street" though. After all, you said it yourself, they FIRST had to prove themselves to the employer by doing front desk / reception work. If they weren't good at what they did, they wouldn't have been "promoted", I am sure.

====> That's what "non-regulation" does for you!


One can only hope, that now that they are in it, that they will focus on their continued education in this field, and go for certification.


But yes, I can definitely see the frustrations behind this...



Danni

Your Professional Title/Credentials: Website Owner/Site Admin

I worked in a large clinic in the midwest. About 75% of the staff at that time were hired "right off the street". It was a private clinic and they hired unskilled personnel because it was cheap to do so. The name of the game was pofit for the MD's who owned the clinic. The employees could be trained to do just what was needed on the job; vitals, simple lab, phlebotomy, injections, and a few treatments. They all worked under the physician's license. There were maybe 2 nurses in the entire clinic and they were undoubtedly paid a little more, but had the exact same duties as the medical assistants.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: CMA,RN

Are You Still In School? no

Are You Working? yes

I can say that I too am frusterated by the things that I have encountered and the time and money I lost becomming a Medical Assistant. I graduated from a so called accredited school in Chicago and I soon there after went to take the CMA exam through the AAMA and did fall short by 3 or 4 points and fail the test. That test is a very good test one of which a lot of places recognize but the schools do not prepare their students well enough. Only if you go to a very good school do you have a chance at passing that test. At the same time I was offered a job in a doctors office and I was working for a jerk of a doctor who only after 5 months of working for him fired me because "he felt like it". Ever since then I have not been able to find a job as a medical assistant because everyone claims that they only want people who are certified with experience which I am considered not to have either of the two. Yes, Yes, Yes! They used to hire people off the street to do the job of a medical assistant where I'm from. The doctor and his staff trained those indivuals in the office, then all of a sudden you had to pay 12k-15k to be trained as a medical assistant because doctors felt that they would aquire better workers and all of these so called private schools found a way to take an already poor person's money. I had to return to school to get a CNA because I became hopeless in ever being a CMA ever again because it seemed so far away and I needed money to support my family. I HATE!! CNA work but at least they are willing to give me a chance. I feel that someone needs to raise a question to the people in power and ask them WHY!! I am all for picking yourself up by the bootstraps and all, but there has got to be a solution for this epidemic within the medical assistant field. My story is so typical and we have got to change this because everyone that I have talked to love the work but they don't have a chance and we too just like RN's, LPN's and even Doctors need a chance. We are spending money and time on an education just like them and earning good grades in our studies just like them. I want to see us have a chance JUST LIKE THEM!!!!!!!!!

Your Professional Title/Credentials: CNA/ MA

Are You Still In School? no

Are You Working? yes

Hello, im a year away from grad. with associate degree as a medical assistant and plan on moving to the islands or Florida. They have alot of openings for medical assistants. I was told that MA start of making 10 dollars an hour w/ no exp. Is this true?

Also, if i have alteast a year exp. can i bump my pay to alteast $14-15 an hr. How do you make that much off the back?

Any body making 15 dollars an hour now??

Your Professional Title/Credentials: Student

Are You Still In School? yes

Are You Working? yes

When I went to MA school 6 years ago they did higher people off the streets. They did not just stand on the front step and say "hey you..want to be an MA?" they did train them. My instructor said that because we live in a rural area it happens alot but a lay MA was to try and get a job in a bigger city it probably would not happen. HOWEVER, that was 6 years ago and since that time I have not hear of any offices highering people off the street. At my office, since about 4 years ago they started to not even CONSIDER some one unless they went throught a medical assisting program or were certifed via grandfathering.

I make $18/hr as a back office supervisor here in Maryland. I have 3 years of full time MA experience. My case is not the norm! Just last month I was a staff MA and was making 15.50/hr. All of the MA's in my office make at least $15/hr.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: MA, DT, CNA

Are You Still In School? yes

Are You Working? yes

Ko-Ko posted very good feedback. It's her objective feedback based on her own experiences and thoughts.

Although I am getting a bit frustrated over the recent flood of comments that I see as discouraging to new students, and graduates, I cannot help but accept the simple fact of life, that thousands of medical assistants will have positive experiences, and thousands of others will have negative ones.

My only regret is that I have invested thousands of hours of my own time, and an equal amount of dollars to build and maintain websites (and this forum) help and reach out new and working medical assistants, only to hear now the profession* and the pay stinks**.

** With which I totally disagree.

I happen to agree with the latest post from HeartsOpenWide... here in Western Massachusetts the largest hospitals of the region (BayState Medical Center, and Mercy Hospital) and all affiliated, or freestanding medical offices seek almost exclusively certified, or registered medical assistants and they pay accordingly.

I have NEVER worked along-side someone that was hired off the street, unless it was a CMA / RMA that happened to be homeless "on the street", and that I wouldn't know, and wouldn't be any of my business.

Employers and recruiters in Massachusetts (Boston Children's Hospital, Woman's Hospital, Noble, Cooley Dickinson, etc.) value the medical assistant diploma and certification and would hardly hire anybody without, because of the risk of jeopardizing their high standards and quality of care to patients.

And now I am taking a very strong stand for medical assistants that were indeed hired without a diploma and trained on the job: whether you agree or disagree, I feel it is poor to complain about them, or point the finger at them. Through my online efforts, message boards, and forums, I have had contact with medical assistants that never got to go through formal training. They may have had other skills or training that translated well into the medical office environment, but I don't know... whether I would call them "hired off the street".

And believe it or not, due to their interest, love for the job, and professional attitude they have indeed worked their butts of, some of them for peanuts, and became very very good medical assistants.

Most of them strongly desire a chance to prove and document their skills , they'd love to sit for the certification exams if they could.

And when it comes to respect, whether an education has cost thousands of dollars, or zero with just the desire to make it in the medical assistant profession, they ALL deserve to be respected, and to be blamed for individual misfortunes, and fingered for the reason of low pay.

Having said this, I'd like to see more positive comments on this board again, about medical assistants, and not about entering the nursing profession for more money.

My 2 cents worth.
[2 cents]

Danni

Your Professional Title/Credentials: Website Owner/Site Admin

Of course, I meant to say NOT to be blamed for individual misfortunes, and fingered for the reason of low pay.

Respect your coworkers and peers, and do eveything YOU can to fulfil your goals and desires. There is enough room for EVERYBODY.

Danni

Your Professional Title/Credentials: Website Owner/Site Admin