So, here I am, still confused as to whether I should go for CMA or LPN/RN and I was wondering if the CMA's on this site could answer me this one question...
What made you go to school for CMA instead of going to school for LPN or RN? What persuaded you? I mean where I live (suburb outside of Chicago), the CMA program is just as long as the RN program, so what would make a person do CMA as opposed to RN?
thanks.

I'm not CMA yet- start school on June 4th, so I hope its ok if I answer this one too. May be a little long.

My husband was diagnosed with a blood disorder called HHT in 2000. The things that were going through my head- all the fear of not knowing anything about it, what to expect or how to handle it was enough to break the strongest willed person. We had and still have many many Dr's visits each month, and I remember when we first started the regular visits, the person in the office that made the biggest impact on me was the CMA, she was there to explain all the tests he needed, there to explain what the diagnoses meant, and there to just listen to us, what we really needed at that time.
Some times doctors are so straight forward in their answers that its hard to take it all in. She was and continues to be wonderful to us every time we go in.

I want to be that for someone else- maybe even a few someone elses.

Amy

At the time, the school I went to didn't offer LPN. It was either 2 year CMA or 4 year RN. That is what made me choose.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: LPN

Are You Still In School? yes

Are You Working? yes

I'm not a CMA either but these days for me the answer would be the hours. Nursing clinicals begin early in the morning and where I live the before school care and day care centers don't open til 7am. I live 45 min from the city and any hospital where I would have to be by 645 for a 7am clinical. Any health care program where I would have to be at a site before 8am is out for me. And then when it comes to work, again, no shifts but regular office hours would work for me....I am married but my husband is out of town for work a great deal of the time and cannot be relied on for picking up or dropping off the kids.

The second answer for me would be that I am in my late 30s and having been partway through a LPN program already I know the work is too backbreaking for me now. God Bless CNAs....

Hi Linda,
I'm in Utah and it is a whole lot harder to get into an RN program then a medical assisting program. Medical assistants are primarily trained to work in a physician's office. MA's can not administer IV meds and make a WHOLE lot less money then RNs. RNs are trained to work in hospitals and their scope of practice is broader then a MA. RNs in Utah can start @ as much as 20.00 per hour, and MA is less then half that. Hope this was helpful, Jaime

Your Professional Title/Credentials: CMA, RPT

Are You Still In School? no

Are You Working? Yes, instructor

"What made you go to school for CMA instead of going to school for LPN or RN? What persuaded you? I mean where I live (suburb outside of Chicago), the CMA program is just as long as the RN program, so what would make a person do CMA as opposed to RN?"

I did not got to school to become a CMA INSTEAD of anything; I thought it would be a quick and easy way for me to decide if I like the medical feild before I went and spend years getting a higher degree in it. I LOVE IT. What inspired me was a friends mom who worked as an MA, she said she liked her job and it sounded interesting, she said that it was great experience for her to go on to nursing (same thing I was considering at the time). I am now in a BSN program and plan to go on to get my MSN and CMN.

The world of nursing and medical assisting are very different. Medical assisting great, but it does not require much critical thinking like nursing does. I am not discrediting medical assisting, its just that after one year of nursing school I have surpassed anything I leanred or did as an MA for the last five years. Don't get me wrong, I do not regret it, it was great experience. It was a quick way for me to get medical training for the amount of cool stuff I got to do. Here the MA program is only 1 year. The associates degree nursing is two years and the BSN is three. LVN is 1 and 1/2 years.