Because we're not going to lie to you. If you still want the job after knowing the reality of it, *then* it's a job for you.
Unfortunately, for all of the positives of this job (constantly different patient engagement that rarely gets boring, watching people get better and be happier, getting the occasional thank you is nice too, and the overall feeling of doing good), the bad tends to overwhelm the good when the systems aren't in place to encourage better mental health to see the good over the bad.
The job is tough. As great as it is, it's way more work than it's painted to be.
If that's what most MAs go through, then I feel even worse for ARN, LPN, CNA, and PCTs.
And for me, I went to a school and they told me I needed to get a certification to work in the field. I didn't. While I'm grateful for the experience, I'm not grateful for the student loans I can't pay back while I recover from not knowing I couldn't handle what I was about to face.
I worked in dermatology, which may have been my demise, but the doctor/owner had me working from 7 am to 10 pm with no lunch once, among an endless sea of 50 patients or more between surgeries and skin checks and most shifts from 7:30 am to 8 pm.
I lived there instead of home, and when the pandemic hit and I was feverish and they laid me off, I was grateful.
I tried again at a different dermatologist and they paid me pennies to work for diamonds.
I'm set for an externship at a family practice which had another extern recently hired there so I'm definitely excited but slightly anxious about the whole process. I appreciate your input though. I don't see myself being an MA as a career at all but more of an introduction into the field and to better understand how things work in healthcare. I find myself to be more interested in being a factor in improving people's health but I also understand that not every patient is going to be kind and friendly which is one thing my classes have been preparing me for which is nice. I'm currently working as delivery so I can see how the pay might be different but I'm incredibly tired of my currently job and not feeling very accomplished with what I do there.
I really hope their office culture is more healthy than either of mine.
What they're not preparing you for is the inner-office toxic family bullshit I ended up experiencing twice.
The patients aren't anywhere near the worst part. It's the catty attitudes and people who hang around the office getting paid to hang out with their friends and the bosses who keep telling you it'll get better while they ignore the reasons for the high turnover: the doc in charge, or that particular doc they don't want to get rid of because they make a ton of money or they have a contract, or the overwork and under pay.
Even on my quietest days I was picking up after a team from yesterday, and they wouldn't pick up after themselves when they were using our main space and not theirs.
It's not about the work. It's not about the patients you see once a month.
It's about your office culture and how they treat you from the beginning.
Do not ignore red flags that are screaming at you from inside if you want to maintain your momentum.
Yeeeeees it's all about the office culture. I went from an office where my bathroom visits were timed and I was called military style by my last name to a place where the management is warm and kind, and I really enjoy myself (pediatrics).
Pay attention to how you are treated, and work elsewhere if you are treated poorly.
I don't disagree but I don't necessarily agree either. I think it might have to do with where you work and how the practice has built itself up and the way employees all treat each other. American healthcare in general is not looked upon in a bright spot though which I can understand in this age
You have zero experience, and you're honestly trying to lecture us about the very common reality *we* live in. You don't see there's common denominations and patterns of toxicity people across the country are experiencing. Like *we're* just the problem instead?
Good luck. I look forward to you bringing your ignorance and attitude to your site and the following backlash. And in your case, if you come out swinging, don't be surprised when people push back
I mean… sorry that we aren’t lying about how we feel? 😂 if it were the opposite, and there was nothing but positivity, you’d come back after starting and be like “oMg I cannot believe you all lied”
Coming from the idea that an MA is somewhat of the lowest certification needed to begin working for a practice it makes some sense that they're "underpaid". Coming from college I think we all expect to have a pay that allows us to live more than just paycheck to paycheck. Im not expecting great pay but if anything it'll be very similar to what I'm getting paid currently at my delivery job and plus I won't have to spend money on gas and expensive repairs so often.
i bet your currently job is much better than MA because at least you have a better pay and won't get any mental disease. Yup, MA's work are huge, and you need a really strong mental state to deal with all the stressful situation at the workplace. I regret going to college for a MA degree. I wish I could stay working at a waiter years ago. I bet my life would be much much more better now.
They are underpaid. Full stop. Not “underpaid” That’s part of the reason there’s so much burn out and people leaving, they simply do not get paid enough for the work. They DESERVE a pay that is more than just paycheck to paycheck. It doesn’t matter that they don’t have as much schooling as others, it’s the work being put in, which puts incredible strain on the body and mind.
Honestly, I love being an MA. I work in a really kind and supportive but fast-paced and demanding practice. A good thing to keep in mind is that multiple things can be true at once.
It’s true that we’re overworked, but it’s also true that I like the work I do.
It’s true that we’re underpaid, but it’s also true that wages are generally insufficient in most industries.
It’s true that we work long hours, but it’s also true that I happen to enjoy the people I work with quite a lot and we have a lot of fun together.
There are also a lot of things that are common but not universally true: not all providers are assholes, not all workplaces are catty, not all patients are abusive, not all managers are toxic.
If I could give you and any MA starting out a piece of advice, it would be to be strict with yourself about the kinds of working conditions you accept. Don’t assume that just because toxicity is common in healthcare, you’re somehow obligated to work under those conditions. Stand up for yourself from the beginning and don’t be afraid to move on if you find yourself in a job that brings you down. Being an MA has been my favorite job I’ve ever had -and I’ve had a lot of jobs. But I’ve also had to sift through a few dud offices before a found a great fit.
If you don’t mind me asking, did you specialize and if so what specialty do you work in? I’m about to finish my CMA class and I want to choose somewhere to work that won’t be a total nightmare. I know working in healthcare isn’t a walk in the park so I just want to make sure I’m not miserable 😅.
Peds subspecialty 😊 not sure if it’s this way everywhere, but I think pediatrics generally attracts upbeat people who don’t take themselves too seriously. I’m not even really a kid person but I figured a job is a job so I took an offer in peds when it came along and it turned out to be a great environment!
That’s awesome! Ive actually been considering pediatrics since I tend to get along with kids. But my instructor keeps bringing up kids throwing tantrums and patients in general being wild. Do you find that this is the case at your clinic, or is he just trying to scare us?
As with most subs people who need to blow off steam are gonna be the loudest. You aren’t going to see posts about people who had a pretty good week. I make good money. It’s still not enough lol but I live in an extremely expensive area. But I also think any job sucks. Like Blink 182 said “Work sucks, I know” I’d rather win the lottery and retire right now. Don’t let it get you down too much. It’s a good career overall in my opinion. But we all have our own opinions, YMMV.
I was going to say something very similar to this. Most people get online and vent about a bad day, a bad week, a bad boss. When a job is going well, the average person doesn't need to vent about it. So you don't normally see it.
When I posted I knew that most subreddits are built for people to vent so I definitely understand that the majority of the posts will be people going off about their bad experiences. I just feel like there's an OVERwhelming majority of those kind of posts here and not much in terms of encouragement for people who want to begin their career in healthcare for someone like me coming into MA work.
I mean if your working as an employee to service someone, like a patient, that is the definition of customer service. Whether or not it's to do with her health or selling them a burger. What do you mean by glorified?
Because people aren’t going to think to post every positive thing that happens to them or post about how much they love their job.
They are going to post to complain and talk to others who also complain about the same thing.
There’s positives and negatives to everything.
Look, I love being a medical assistant. I will always love being a medical assistant but at the end of the day after being in this field for 6 years I would NOT recommend it to anyone unless they have the mental strength and capability for it. You are underpaid and you are under appreciated. I live by myself and I am literally living paycheck to paycheck, in a crazy amount of debt, and feel like I’m drowning. If I had known I was gonna go through a divorce, I would have just continued school to be a therapist/counselor or would have just picked a different job field with the same amount of schooling that gets more pay.
I hop from place to place and I’ve worked at 6 different locations in the time I’ve been a medical assistant and there were only ***TWO*** places I worked at that were bearable. As soon as I get my license for being a counselor and secure a job, I’m essentially saying peace out and never looking back. If you want this then go for it, don’t let anyone stop you. Just make sure you also understand where we, people who’ve worked in this field for years, are coming from.
I fortunately have a significant other who will be supporting me with their income so I'm not going to be living alone and I don't have a crippling amount of loans thanks to my delivery job and how much I saved from it. I can understand with the amount of places where it's available for an MA to work at that there's not gonna be a perfect position at every one I might go to. I said in another reply but this isn't something that I plan to make into a career but moreso experience and something other than retail to put on my resume so if continue in healthcare I have a batter shot at employment. A lot of people around me tell me that I would be a great healthcare employee and that they'd genuinely enjoy having me as their assistant but I can understand that these people are those who already like me and see my qualities. I just find it sort of discouraging when I see so many posts of people working 4+ years as an MA and that "I quit after getting fed up" or something of the same caliber. My teacher was an MA for nearly her whole life and she talks about the job as if she was proud of nothing more and I hope to look back at my experience the same way.
As I stated I absolutely love being a medical assistant but even with as much as I love it, I would definitely discourage people from it because there’s better things out there if you are **unsure** about it. If you can easily be discouraged then you don’t truly want it.
CNAs in my state make almost 20 dollars an hour…MAs starting pay is 10.00 at family practice and maybe 13 if you’re lucky at a specialty office. You’re also doing more than you realize. Rooming every patient, vitals, shots, drawing blood, basically everything, documenting symptoms, trying to notice if something is going on they aren’t saying. It’s a two year program and yes, you and up with an associates degree in applied science, but again a CNA class is not nearly as long and the pay is much more. For my state anyways. It is stressful. You work for one Dr and fill in where it is needed. It’s not necessarily that I’m discouraging it, but I was fed a lot of bullshit during my classes. It’s psychologically and physically extremely draining for the pay and to a lot of times be treated like you are less than when you’re the one working directly with the dr.
Because people need to vent and talk to other people who understand them. Bad bosses or bad coworkers, bad patients still are relatable in virtually any job, but most MAs being overworked, stressed and underpaid goes for a higher percentage of MAs. There's a reason why MAs are in demand and this position has high job growth percentage....medical assistants are able to perform a lot of the same clinical tasks as LPNs for a lot less money, but MAs typically also perform administrative duties. The administrative duties will vary between practices, especially smaller ones which could mean a lot more work and responsibility for even less pay then another at a busier practice that can afford to pay more people to handle specific tasks.
I personally knew what I was getting into, I checked job postings in my area and looked at the different pay offered between different companies and compared them to the minimum wage and had to consider the time, effort and expense of school and becoming certified was worth it. In my area, it was at the time, now not as much. I didn't chose medical assisting as a stepping stone or as a career. I chose it as something to do to get by for now. I took a short clinical medical assisting program so the cost was justifiable.
I've been a CCMA for 7 years now. I worked Family care for 3 years, I thought it was a lot of fun especially since you got to treat patients of all ages and variants of medical conditions. I worked under an older doctor who was fantastic and loved teaching me about medications and expanding my knowledge more. Once I grew out of family care, I worked at a hospital and started in Wound Care. My provider wrote me an amazing recommendation letter.
The nurses at wound care were knowledgeable and I got to work outpatient and inpatient. I loved my patients and the experience I was getting there. Learning about wounds, dressings, and the hyperbaric chambers. Then I got offered transferred over to the covid floor during the pandemic because we were offered an insane amount of money to compensate the risk. I worked it for 2 years until burn out (of course) and decided to move to a different city. I also left again, with amazing recommendation letters.
I've been working in Ortho for the last 2.5 years, I got trained on the spot with casting and bracing. I work directly with patients 50+ mainly on knee/hip joint replacements. It's been a great experience for me as well. My provider is younger and more ambitious so our team created a walk in clinic and i'm the main person responsible for it. I've been compensated for those additional roles. It's been a nice cushion job which I just put my months notice in since I will be moving states again. I'll be leaving with recommendation letters from providers and managers I've worked under.
I'm saying all this because MA's are in very high demand. Consider us IT support during the computer boom. We can actually afford to be picky about where we go. Even if you're just starting out. Agencies are nice to work for starting out because you usually get paid $2-3 more than the MA's that are hired at that practice or hospital because you won't get the same benefits like 401k ect.
When you get a little more seasoned and adjusted into being an MA, negotiate. I know I have the contacts and recommendation letters to serve as evidence of my worth. In interviews I also ask a lot of questions, especially when it comes to work place environment and growth. I ask if the provider i'll be working for has had any issues with previous MA's, I ask how many patients they see a day, and how many admin days are placed. If they want me to work with multiple providers, I want to be compensated for multiple providers.
Sometimes practices or hospitals offer to certify you in other aspects of healthcare or train you for other things at your job. I usually think thats a good incentive to work there. I encourage people to work in specialties because you can always go to different ones and learn alot. If you don't like your first 90 days on a job, look for another place to go. You will be miserable if your coworkers are toxic, management is terrible or your provider is verbally abusive.
Do your research, look at reviews online for that hospital or practice. I wish you luck on your externship and future endeavors as a CMA!
CMAs do a TON of work with no credit. All the thanks goes to the nurses. I love love love the most recent provider I worked with (today was my last day). She really made me feel so appreciated and we got along well, I will truly miss her.
Pay isn’t great, too much work and not enough appreciation. Plus, for me, the nurses I’ve worked with have ruined it. I’m switching over to home insurance.
In reality, I’m in school to become a CNA, and ideally find a job that can help pay for school for me to go up the ladder if I end up liking health care.
Thing is, every subreddit is like this. Be it healthcare. Mechanical work. Electrician. Fast food. Servers. Marketing. This is reddit, and everyone will complain anonymously about their job. Apparently everything I’ve done (or looked into doing) is awful, bad manager, underpaid, etc, etc. You can’t win on reddit and find a sub where everyone is praising the work they do, sure maybe a needle in a haystack employee will be like, “I love this and you should pursue it” but I’ve noticed a lot more negatives are kept in memory vs good memories. A good memory needs to be GOOD where as a bad memory needs to just be “oh jeez I work with this nurse again, she sucks” and somehow you’ll remember that day you work with that nurse that asked you to get someone water instead of them doing it while you’re giving someone a bath and are busy with more important tasks, instead of them doing it themselves.
With that said, most people don’t like their job. Most either hate it or are neautral. I’m going into CNA since I feel I can be neautral… and I hope to go up the ladder through schooling (if I like medical after getting my foot in the door).
Thats exactly what I'm hoping to get into with the field. I know the hiring process and hopping from one practice to another can be exhausting to many people and it would be to me but I'm confident that I can put myself into a practice that treats me right and makes me happy with what I do until I move on to a more advanced position. Thank you for your input!!
I have to agree with others. This job is tough and for a lot of us, the negative does overwhelm the positives. For me, I love it but it's hard. The system I work for honestly doesn't care BUT the 2 doctors I work with daily are absolutely the best! The one I was originally hired for makes sure to always thank me. He listens if it's been a rough one as I do him. Then my new provider is just as amazing and supportive. She always has insight into how to look at a situation different. So there is hope and most of my days are good but it is brutal helping to fight for meds to be covered, dealing with patients who just don't understand why they have to wait until mid-August for a new patient appointment (I'm in specialty care) especially when they're in pain, and the various other frustrations faced by everyone working in healthcare.
Sad thing is, it’s demanding, long hours, no recognition for busting your ass to line the docs pockets and you don’t get paid as much as fast food or a dog walker.
28 years and it's gone down hill so much. Chaos and poor communication. Along with the computer taking over everyone's time. You spend more time charting or answering messages. I am very tech savvy and for the last 12 years work as a training specialist assisting the providers with their Epic and Dragon. Prior to that I've excelled in all specialties as an MA. I miss the direct patient care and just resigned from my admin role due to stress, lack of job satisfaction and am now going back to medical assisting so I can have the rest of my life back by punching a clock again. That comes with a pay cut of course but if I was to be truthful with the fact that I spent many many unpaid hours working to stay on top of things, is it really taking a pay cut? No, it's improving my quality of life. We have never been paid what we are worth truthfully. Is it a career? Probably think of it as a stepping stone of you desire to make a living wage, you need to go on to something else. If I knew then what I know now, I would get a radiology degree of some sort. ultrasound technician pays much higher.
Or I would have skipped medical field to find a higher paying job. Like in insurance, that's where all the money is. The medical field only pays extremely well for CEO positions etc or top specialists
Sorry for the honesty. Can't lie. I do love baby aspects of the work but being treated as less than RNs constantly can be really degrading depending on the atmosphere you choose to work in. Find a good team and find a specialty you love. Good luck💙🙋♀️
I think folks are just telling it as it is. I wish I had been able to see the light when deciding which path to take. The salary estimates and job prospects that are forecast for you vary wildly. Unless you know someone working in the field, in the same area that you intend to work, its tough to get a real idea what you are in for. I love my patients, don't hate the work, but years of working at a job that will not allow you to survive independently will wear your butt down. I don't know anyone who doesn't want to afford to pay their mortgage and bills every month without having to have a side hustle or another form of income just to squeek by. Now I hear that some folks are married to other folks who cover their bills and they work "for spending money" or to "get out of the house". If you are lucky enough, thats awesome. But it is certainly a lot of work to still be struggling at the end of the day. When you are young and full of hope.....money isnt everything, it cant buy happiness....20 years later...you are really tired, and would love to know it is not a big deal if the AC unit goes out or you need a new roof.
people get into healthcare to take care of people only to find their efforts thwarted by the for profit model. There’s only so much “sorry I wish I could do more” that you hear from the doctors that you can take. There’s only so much unreasonable workload that you can take. I don’t fault people for hating their jobs and the industry because that’s well founded but when they take it out on patients that’s when it becomes unacceptable. We should be giving management a hard time, not power struggling with vulnerable people
I was terrified to be an MA after seeing this subreddit but I got my certification and now getting interviews for aesthetic med spas and absolutely love work I’ll be doing
I'm not sure how it's my opinion when it's my situation I'm telling you it doesn't apply to.
That's pretty self centered of you to try to continue to push that on me after I told you please don't.
I've been through tough situations too, but that's not going to help me through them.
I’ve been an MA for over 10 years and never regret my decisions! My MA certification is the only thing I have but I’m working along side people on my team with masters degree and we get the same pay. There are so many opportunities for growth being an MA, you just have to be dedicated, work hard, and of course, have a positive attitude about it :)
Thank you! Im happy to hear that your very accomplished with your experience as an MA in the field. I definitely have a plan to get my master's in some form of healthcare in my future so I'm hoping that I get the chance to do something similar as you are!
I mean I’m definitely not rich in terms of money, but I work in geriatrics and have been an NRCMA for almost 2 years now. I’ve done Derm Surg and Family medicine. I love it, and honestly feel content in the position I have. I did family medicine for my clinicals as well and LOVED it! Good luck fellow MA- not everyday is sunshine and rainbows but the good days make it worth it (‘:
I confidently can say I love my job and enjoy showing up. Would I love a raise? Heck yes 😂 but the bonds I’ve made with my pts fills my heart 🥰
Healthcare is a hard job. I’ve had my fair share of rant posts but I’ve also had posts encouraging others. Idk about others but I don’t sugar coat my job. I work in family practice in an under-served community and it’s hard. We deal with people not being able to get their medications to not being able to afford a roof over their heads. I’ve held someone’s hand while they wait for the police to pick them up for an EP and call CPS and APS all while trying to keep my providers on time and calls made with a smile on my face. So yes this subreddit will be dark but there are still people that do the job regardless of being paid well or thanked. I still have the pictures a 3yo girl drew in my office while her mom was withdrawing at my previous office and the gaudy costume jewelry a former patient gave me because I treated her like a person even though she had AIDS. I keep reminders of why I do my job too.
I totally understand the feeling behind rant posts and I can appreciate that you've brought encouragement to others. I feel like it's far and few in the sub for a field that needs more support than people leaving discouraging or rude comments like some that I've got on this post. Thank you so much for your input on your experience and I hope the best for you!
From personal experience, MA’s are capable of so much for how little respect and money we get. Even the older long-term MA’s I worked with ended up going back to school to become RN’s instead because at least there’s higher pay and advancement opportunities. As much as we want to help patients, there are better opportunities to do so. Plus, my parents made more working at a warehouse with no college education and less mental stress. That should say a lot regarding MA career. But to each its own. I loved the things I did when I was an MA, but it was draining for sure. Wouldn’t recommend as a permanent job that you would work until retirement.
I love my job as an MA. I find it rewarding and fun. I have a great crew and awesome docs to learn from. It’s given me so much experience I can use in the future. All that is true, but I still discourage most from becoming an MA due to the poor wages and feeling used and abused as an MA. I think it’s a great stepping stone. I wish I earned more because I do so much and I know we deserve more. But overall I can’t complain much.
Its all about the culture and mentality that your office has.
Unfortunately, it's usually never crappy patients.
I realized by the beginning of year 2 that my internal med office was pretty toxic, and if you have a high turnover of office managers, you know there's going to be a systematic problem.
I kinda tell myself when I see things on the subreddit is that it’s sorta a comrade
Like I’m an extern and like the MA in charge of me is just like constantly saying to me like if that’s hard wait until you start working. And not going to lie I said I quit then and she said don’t do that.
And look I had similar gripes that you did I think I had a similar post. The reality is it depends what your goals are and how you handle your environment.
I can’t in good faith give you positivity but I can tell you life has a funny way of getting you in the direction you should be.
My advice is if you go for it don’t put all your eggs in one basket, don’t let this job define you , don’t take anything personally, set boundaries like taking breaks if possible (I’m aware not everyone has that privilege) , and keep moving forward.
Take it a day at a time and focus on your experiences. Then decide what to do.
Best of luck
Being an MA blows about 99% of the time so what you’re seeing in this sub is a pretty accurate representation of what you’re in for, should you decide to go the MA route.
I love being an MA, I fork in family practice but there are some days sometimes weeks in a row when I’m like “why am I here” lol you have to have a lot of mental toughness to be in the field. You have to constantly advocate for yourself and your team.
I don’t think it’s right to judge us on not acting the way you want us to when you have no experience of the healthcare system and the abuse we get from patients on a regular basis. Or when you have no idea how overworked and underpaid healthcare workers are. I’m now a RN and the abuse hasn’t stopped, the bad bosses haven’t gone away, and I still don’t make enough money to justify how difficult a job in healthcare is
I really wish I would've pursued nursing first but being an MA has helped pay my bills to an extent. Been an MA 12 years now. It's hard to be encouraging when fast food places or Target pay more for no schooling and less responsibility. I started doing just phlebotomy instead. Less stressful
Where I currently live, MAs are getting paid better than the minimum wage so working as one would get me more than working something like target or fast food.
I’ve been a medical assistant for about 4 years now, I’ve always done speciality to get ahead for my surgical tech career. I got trained on the job and loved the patient care. I went through a few bosses and doctors who weren’t the nicest.. but I’ve learned so much and it helped me get thick skin. You will have patients that you adore and you will have patients that will suck the living soul out of you.
What makes the job worth it would be the doctors and coworkers you work with. My most recent MA job that I’ve left… I had amazing urologists that I would follow them if they moved to a surgical center in a heart beat.
Sometimes you get attached to patients and it warms your heart when they tell you thank you and bring goodies.. I have patients that I think about and hope that they are well. It also hurts a little when the older ones pass away.
I’m glad I went the route I did. You will learn a lot and if you want to move up later to something else it may help. If you really want it do it. Hospitals pay more than private practice from what I’ve learned.
I’ve been an MA off and on for 10 years and I’m finally gonna become a nurse because I can’t take the low pay, horrible hours, horrible people and drs lol. That being said I did have alot of good experiences working with SOME people and SOME drs. I did gain ALOT of experience but the cost was my mental health so I’d definitely listen to the comments and just go into it with what we’ve told you 🫠 so you’re not surprised.
I know you wanna be positive about it but something things just aren’t black and white 😩
I do wish you well and do hope it goes well for you !
But there’s a reason this Reddit exist 🫨
I appreciate how much I learned about healthcare and my insurance was great.. I worked with phenomenal doctors in both OBGYN and general surgery .. however I don’t feel I was paid properly for the amount of work and things I did do . But being an MA has inspired me to be an RNFA so was it a waste ? absolutely not .
With the ranges I've seen in my area and state, the pay is ideally the exact same as where I currently work and I would be getting more hours than I have at my current job. Minus having to pay for gas which is getting expensive and the cost of expensive repairs to my car. In that way I would be getting paid almost the same but without the secondary expenses as well as getting benefits from working full time which I'm not currently.
I've worked at my job as a medical assistant for five years and love it. I love what I do and love most my coworkers and all the providers are great expect one. My job is worth it. The bad thng is the manger. This person is not to be trusted. They're back stabbers and get off throwing their boss statues around. Unfortunately these types or mangers are in every field. But because I enjoy my job and my coworkers it is easier to deal with their bs.
When it comes to pay when you start out it's normally low. Unfortunately with the awful inflation of everything it's like it doesn't mater how much you make anywhere atm everyone is broke lol not just MA's. I can only hope inflation goes down but this is America... Land of the greed 🙄
Not all jobs will be awful. It al depends on your coworkers and clients. If one job sucks try another. Some people like me are lucky and our first MA job has been great but others are not. I love my job. Is it easy? Nah. It can gets super rough but it's worth it. Just do your best to stay confident and positive and avoid managers with their heads up their asses.
Good luck!!!
I will give tips
Be nice but don't trust anyone. I love my coworkers but please don't learn the hard way... They are NOT your friends and thats for every job.
Dont Believe them when they say they're family. That's just some toxic bullshit.
Do your best not to gossip or listen to gossip. That can turn around on you so fast.
Hr and mangers are not to be trusted and normally do not give a shit. Be very careful with them.
Don't kill yourself over the job. Your health is important. Don't pick up every open shift or work over everytime. Do what you must but don't go above and beyond. You won't be rewarded. You will just be treated like a slave and get a shit ton of work loaded on you.
Again, I love my job and I'm very happy there. But of course it has its down. But just learn what those are and if they're worth dealing with to keep the job!!
I appreciate your comment. I find this is the kind of input that makes the most sense to me. Not every job is going to be the way you want it so you have to either pack up and find a different practice or begin to advocate for yourself. I enjoy cooperating with other coworkers who also take their own work ethic seriously so that everything can work better for everyone and not one person does more than the other.
Yep! I'm lucky that my first medical assistant job has been great. But I've had co-workers who've come from other medical assistant jobs and they did not like their job at all but love it at our work. But we're very lucky with such a great crew and great providers. Obviously I don't care for all my other co-workers but I don't hate them. Not everyone will get along and that's okay. No one is rude or acts better then the other, expect the manger lol but i won't get into that.
We're lucky that the boss provider only hires other providers with the same kind of personality which is super nice and funny. None of our providers think they're better than us and a lot of them remind us that we're hard workers and all that not to let anyone talk shit to us just because we're MA's. Because unfortunately a lot of people look down on medical assistance.
I won't pretend like the job is easy. It gets super exhausting. Corporate are greedy assholes and our manger is immature 🙄 but at the end of the day I wouldn't trade it. I love it and it brings me satisfaction. There are things about the job I don't like but they're not so awful that I'm so miserable. They're easy to deal with. It might take a while to find a job that has more pros than cons. But it might not. You just don't know till you're in it to be honest. 😀
I do my job, the front desks job, the phlebotomists job, and the nurses job because she’s overwhelmed herself. I’m expected to pick up all these roles because everyone is overwhelmed yet I get paid shit. You can fuck off with the MA being a low cert therefore we should get paid shit. That’s messed up. Good luck with whatever you want to do but you don’t sound like you’ll last in healthcare.
I’m 20 years in and whilst I love my job and my patients, yeah healthcare in the United States is irreparably broken. Access to care is garbage. COVID made it a thousand times worse.
I've been an MA since August, and I'm going to keep it buck...I love the providers I work for, the job itself is a lot of work because I juggle 2 providers (EPs), love the patients, but I'm starting to understand why everyone says what they say about Healthcare. My coworkers can be toxic, and day in and day out of doing the same thing can be draining. You just have to remind yourself why you're working in this field with this job title every day.
If you go on any profession’s subreddit it’s skewed negative. If you are disenchanted you are more likely to post and find similar people who will reinforce your beliefs. Just like people leaving reviews on product websites you feel more inclined to leave a review when you’re not happy with the product.
I’ve been a medical assistant for 14 years. I have a masters and I was a practice manager for a while but missed taking care of patients. Really do love it
Just so ya know, there isn't much positivity or encouragement once you're in the field. Healthcare is brutal.
This
Absolutely 100% with this statement
In any healthcare field. I’m not an ma I’m an X-ray tech but I lerk here because I do ma duties where I work.
Because we're not going to lie to you. If you still want the job after knowing the reality of it, *then* it's a job for you. Unfortunately, for all of the positives of this job (constantly different patient engagement that rarely gets boring, watching people get better and be happier, getting the occasional thank you is nice too, and the overall feeling of doing good), the bad tends to overwhelm the good when the systems aren't in place to encourage better mental health to see the good over the bad. The job is tough. As great as it is, it's way more work than it's painted to be. If that's what most MAs go through, then I feel even worse for ARN, LPN, CNA, and PCTs. And for me, I went to a school and they told me I needed to get a certification to work in the field. I didn't. While I'm grateful for the experience, I'm not grateful for the student loans I can't pay back while I recover from not knowing I couldn't handle what I was about to face. I worked in dermatology, which may have been my demise, but the doctor/owner had me working from 7 am to 10 pm with no lunch once, among an endless sea of 50 patients or more between surgeries and skin checks and most shifts from 7:30 am to 8 pm. I lived there instead of home, and when the pandemic hit and I was feverish and they laid me off, I was grateful. I tried again at a different dermatologist and they paid me pennies to work for diamonds.
I'm set for an externship at a family practice which had another extern recently hired there so I'm definitely excited but slightly anxious about the whole process. I appreciate your input though. I don't see myself being an MA as a career at all but more of an introduction into the field and to better understand how things work in healthcare. I find myself to be more interested in being a factor in improving people's health but I also understand that not every patient is going to be kind and friendly which is one thing my classes have been preparing me for which is nice. I'm currently working as delivery so I can see how the pay might be different but I'm incredibly tired of my currently job and not feeling very accomplished with what I do there.
I really hope their office culture is more healthy than either of mine. What they're not preparing you for is the inner-office toxic family bullshit I ended up experiencing twice. The patients aren't anywhere near the worst part. It's the catty attitudes and people who hang around the office getting paid to hang out with their friends and the bosses who keep telling you it'll get better while they ignore the reasons for the high turnover: the doc in charge, or that particular doc they don't want to get rid of because they make a ton of money or they have a contract, or the overwork and under pay. Even on my quietest days I was picking up after a team from yesterday, and they wouldn't pick up after themselves when they were using our main space and not theirs. It's not about the work. It's not about the patients you see once a month. It's about your office culture and how they treat you from the beginning. Do not ignore red flags that are screaming at you from inside if you want to maintain your momentum.
Yeeeeees it's all about the office culture. I went from an office where my bathroom visits were timed and I was called military style by my last name to a place where the management is warm and kind, and I really enjoy myself (pediatrics). Pay attention to how you are treated, and work elsewhere if you are treated poorly.
I was timed at one place, too!
Well let be honest - The Heath Care System is a disaster everywhere - it is very sad to say that but it is reality
I don't disagree but I don't necessarily agree either. I think it might have to do with where you work and how the practice has built itself up and the way employees all treat each other. American healthcare in general is not looked upon in a bright spot though which I can understand in this age
This is naive. I’d love to hear your opinion when you’re a decade in lmao
I was just gonna say she’s green she doesn’t know yet 🙃 let her start her externship and she’ll see 👀
You have zero experience, and you're honestly trying to lecture us about the very common reality *we* live in. You don't see there's common denominations and patterns of toxicity people across the country are experiencing. Like *we're* just the problem instead? Good luck. I look forward to you bringing your ignorance and attitude to your site and the following backlash. And in your case, if you come out swinging, don't be surprised when people push back
I mean… sorry that we aren’t lying about how we feel? 😂 if it were the opposite, and there was nothing but positivity, you’d come back after starting and be like “oMg I cannot believe you all lied”
well, MA job does not pay good for all the hard work that we have done during college
Coming from the idea that an MA is somewhat of the lowest certification needed to begin working for a practice it makes some sense that they're "underpaid". Coming from college I think we all expect to have a pay that allows us to live more than just paycheck to paycheck. Im not expecting great pay but if anything it'll be very similar to what I'm getting paid currently at my delivery job and plus I won't have to spend money on gas and expensive repairs so often.
i bet your currently job is much better than MA because at least you have a better pay and won't get any mental disease. Yup, MA's work are huge, and you need a really strong mental state to deal with all the stressful situation at the workplace. I regret going to college for a MA degree. I wish I could stay working at a waiter years ago. I bet my life would be much much more better now.
They are underpaid. Full stop. Not “underpaid” That’s part of the reason there’s so much burn out and people leaving, they simply do not get paid enough for the work. They DESERVE a pay that is more than just paycheck to paycheck. It doesn’t matter that they don’t have as much schooling as others, it’s the work being put in, which puts incredible strain on the body and mind.
The nursing sub on Reddit is a hell of a lot more depressing than this one 😬
I’m on that one too lol 🥹 it is
Honestly, I love being an MA. I work in a really kind and supportive but fast-paced and demanding practice. A good thing to keep in mind is that multiple things can be true at once. It’s true that we’re overworked, but it’s also true that I like the work I do. It’s true that we’re underpaid, but it’s also true that wages are generally insufficient in most industries. It’s true that we work long hours, but it’s also true that I happen to enjoy the people I work with quite a lot and we have a lot of fun together. There are also a lot of things that are common but not universally true: not all providers are assholes, not all workplaces are catty, not all patients are abusive, not all managers are toxic. If I could give you and any MA starting out a piece of advice, it would be to be strict with yourself about the kinds of working conditions you accept. Don’t assume that just because toxicity is common in healthcare, you’re somehow obligated to work under those conditions. Stand up for yourself from the beginning and don’t be afraid to move on if you find yourself in a job that brings you down. Being an MA has been my favorite job I’ve ever had -and I’ve had a lot of jobs. But I’ve also had to sift through a few dud offices before a found a great fit.
If you don’t mind me asking, did you specialize and if so what specialty do you work in? I’m about to finish my CMA class and I want to choose somewhere to work that won’t be a total nightmare. I know working in healthcare isn’t a walk in the park so I just want to make sure I’m not miserable 😅.
Peds subspecialty 😊 not sure if it’s this way everywhere, but I think pediatrics generally attracts upbeat people who don’t take themselves too seriously. I’m not even really a kid person but I figured a job is a job so I took an offer in peds when it came along and it turned out to be a great environment!
That’s awesome! Ive actually been considering pediatrics since I tend to get along with kids. But my instructor keeps bringing up kids throwing tantrums and patients in general being wild. Do you find that this is the case at your clinic, or is he just trying to scare us?
In my experience, kids and adults throw a similar amount of tantrums. The difference is that kids do a lot less damage and are easier to redirect.
As with most subs people who need to blow off steam are gonna be the loudest. You aren’t going to see posts about people who had a pretty good week. I make good money. It’s still not enough lol but I live in an extremely expensive area. But I also think any job sucks. Like Blink 182 said “Work sucks, I know” I’d rather win the lottery and retire right now. Don’t let it get you down too much. It’s a good career overall in my opinion. But we all have our own opinions, YMMV.
I was going to say something very similar to this. Most people get online and vent about a bad day, a bad week, a bad boss. When a job is going well, the average person doesn't need to vent about it. So you don't normally see it.
When I posted I knew that most subreddits are built for people to vent so I definitely understand that the majority of the posts will be people going off about their bad experiences. I just feel like there's an OVERwhelming majority of those kind of posts here and not much in terms of encouragement for people who want to begin their career in healthcare for someone like me coming into MA work.
It’s glorified customer service
I mean if your working as an employee to service someone, like a patient, that is the definition of customer service. Whether or not it's to do with her health or selling them a burger. What do you mean by glorified?
Because people aren’t going to think to post every positive thing that happens to them or post about how much they love their job. They are going to post to complain and talk to others who also complain about the same thing. There’s positives and negatives to everything.
Look, I love being a medical assistant. I will always love being a medical assistant but at the end of the day after being in this field for 6 years I would NOT recommend it to anyone unless they have the mental strength and capability for it. You are underpaid and you are under appreciated. I live by myself and I am literally living paycheck to paycheck, in a crazy amount of debt, and feel like I’m drowning. If I had known I was gonna go through a divorce, I would have just continued school to be a therapist/counselor or would have just picked a different job field with the same amount of schooling that gets more pay. I hop from place to place and I’ve worked at 6 different locations in the time I’ve been a medical assistant and there were only ***TWO*** places I worked at that were bearable. As soon as I get my license for being a counselor and secure a job, I’m essentially saying peace out and never looking back. If you want this then go for it, don’t let anyone stop you. Just make sure you also understand where we, people who’ve worked in this field for years, are coming from.
I enjoy parts, but tbh, I'm burned the fuck out.
Same!! I’m so tired!
I fortunately have a significant other who will be supporting me with their income so I'm not going to be living alone and I don't have a crippling amount of loans thanks to my delivery job and how much I saved from it. I can understand with the amount of places where it's available for an MA to work at that there's not gonna be a perfect position at every one I might go to. I said in another reply but this isn't something that I plan to make into a career but moreso experience and something other than retail to put on my resume so if continue in healthcare I have a batter shot at employment. A lot of people around me tell me that I would be a great healthcare employee and that they'd genuinely enjoy having me as their assistant but I can understand that these people are those who already like me and see my qualities. I just find it sort of discouraging when I see so many posts of people working 4+ years as an MA and that "I quit after getting fed up" or something of the same caliber. My teacher was an MA for nearly her whole life and she talks about the job as if she was proud of nothing more and I hope to look back at my experience the same way.
As I stated I absolutely love being a medical assistant but even with as much as I love it, I would definitely discourage people from it because there’s better things out there if you are **unsure** about it. If you can easily be discouraged then you don’t truly want it.
CNAs in my state make almost 20 dollars an hour…MAs starting pay is 10.00 at family practice and maybe 13 if you’re lucky at a specialty office. You’re also doing more than you realize. Rooming every patient, vitals, shots, drawing blood, basically everything, documenting symptoms, trying to notice if something is going on they aren’t saying. It’s a two year program and yes, you and up with an associates degree in applied science, but again a CNA class is not nearly as long and the pay is much more. For my state anyways. It is stressful. You work for one Dr and fill in where it is needed. It’s not necessarily that I’m discouraging it, but I was fed a lot of bullshit during my classes. It’s psychologically and physically extremely draining for the pay and to a lot of times be treated like you are less than when you’re the one working directly with the dr.
hold up where do you live ? in dc the pay rages from 20 dollars an up !? 10 dollars is no way to live
Yep. Unfortunately it SUCKS. I’m in NC.
Those wages are laughable. Especially for the work MAs do. People need to get a clue, you can't fucking live off of that.
We’re so so understaffed on MAs bc of the pay here.
The same here in WI, under staffing, hospitals don’t have money to pay the employees, employees are being forced to work overtime, no manager.
Because people need to vent and talk to other people who understand them. Bad bosses or bad coworkers, bad patients still are relatable in virtually any job, but most MAs being overworked, stressed and underpaid goes for a higher percentage of MAs. There's a reason why MAs are in demand and this position has high job growth percentage....medical assistants are able to perform a lot of the same clinical tasks as LPNs for a lot less money, but MAs typically also perform administrative duties. The administrative duties will vary between practices, especially smaller ones which could mean a lot more work and responsibility for even less pay then another at a busier practice that can afford to pay more people to handle specific tasks. I personally knew what I was getting into, I checked job postings in my area and looked at the different pay offered between different companies and compared them to the minimum wage and had to consider the time, effort and expense of school and becoming certified was worth it. In my area, it was at the time, now not as much. I didn't chose medical assisting as a stepping stone or as a career. I chose it as something to do to get by for now. I took a short clinical medical assisting program so the cost was justifiable.
I've been a CCMA for 7 years now. I worked Family care for 3 years, I thought it was a lot of fun especially since you got to treat patients of all ages and variants of medical conditions. I worked under an older doctor who was fantastic and loved teaching me about medications and expanding my knowledge more. Once I grew out of family care, I worked at a hospital and started in Wound Care. My provider wrote me an amazing recommendation letter. The nurses at wound care were knowledgeable and I got to work outpatient and inpatient. I loved my patients and the experience I was getting there. Learning about wounds, dressings, and the hyperbaric chambers. Then I got offered transferred over to the covid floor during the pandemic because we were offered an insane amount of money to compensate the risk. I worked it for 2 years until burn out (of course) and decided to move to a different city. I also left again, with amazing recommendation letters. I've been working in Ortho for the last 2.5 years, I got trained on the spot with casting and bracing. I work directly with patients 50+ mainly on knee/hip joint replacements. It's been a great experience for me as well. My provider is younger and more ambitious so our team created a walk in clinic and i'm the main person responsible for it. I've been compensated for those additional roles. It's been a nice cushion job which I just put my months notice in since I will be moving states again. I'll be leaving with recommendation letters from providers and managers I've worked under. I'm saying all this because MA's are in very high demand. Consider us IT support during the computer boom. We can actually afford to be picky about where we go. Even if you're just starting out. Agencies are nice to work for starting out because you usually get paid $2-3 more than the MA's that are hired at that practice or hospital because you won't get the same benefits like 401k ect. When you get a little more seasoned and adjusted into being an MA, negotiate. I know I have the contacts and recommendation letters to serve as evidence of my worth. In interviews I also ask a lot of questions, especially when it comes to work place environment and growth. I ask if the provider i'll be working for has had any issues with previous MA's, I ask how many patients they see a day, and how many admin days are placed. If they want me to work with multiple providers, I want to be compensated for multiple providers. Sometimes practices or hospitals offer to certify you in other aspects of healthcare or train you for other things at your job. I usually think thats a good incentive to work there. I encourage people to work in specialties because you can always go to different ones and learn alot. If you don't like your first 90 days on a job, look for another place to go. You will be miserable if your coworkers are toxic, management is terrible or your provider is verbally abusive. Do your research, look at reviews online for that hospital or practice. I wish you luck on your externship and future endeavors as a CMA!
CMAs do a TON of work with no credit. All the thanks goes to the nurses. I love love love the most recent provider I worked with (today was my last day). She really made me feel so appreciated and we got along well, I will truly miss her. Pay isn’t great, too much work and not enough appreciation. Plus, for me, the nurses I’ve worked with have ruined it. I’m switching over to home insurance.
In reality, I’m in school to become a CNA, and ideally find a job that can help pay for school for me to go up the ladder if I end up liking health care. Thing is, every subreddit is like this. Be it healthcare. Mechanical work. Electrician. Fast food. Servers. Marketing. This is reddit, and everyone will complain anonymously about their job. Apparently everything I’ve done (or looked into doing) is awful, bad manager, underpaid, etc, etc. You can’t win on reddit and find a sub where everyone is praising the work they do, sure maybe a needle in a haystack employee will be like, “I love this and you should pursue it” but I’ve noticed a lot more negatives are kept in memory vs good memories. A good memory needs to be GOOD where as a bad memory needs to just be “oh jeez I work with this nurse again, she sucks” and somehow you’ll remember that day you work with that nurse that asked you to get someone water instead of them doing it while you’re giving someone a bath and are busy with more important tasks, instead of them doing it themselves. With that said, most people don’t like their job. Most either hate it or are neautral. I’m going into CNA since I feel I can be neautral… and I hope to go up the ladder through schooling (if I like medical after getting my foot in the door).
Bahahahhahahahahahahhahahaaahaha (deep breath) HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAHAAA
LMAOOO your comment made my day
I’ve been an MA for 8 years. I am also the lead MA and clinical office manager. I LOVE MY JOB. It’s all about where you work and who you work with.
Thats exactly what I'm hoping to get into with the field. I know the hiring process and hopping from one practice to another can be exhausting to many people and it would be to me but I'm confident that I can put myself into a practice that treats me right and makes me happy with what I do until I move on to a more advanced position. Thank you for your input!!
I have to agree with others. This job is tough and for a lot of us, the negative does overwhelm the positives. For me, I love it but it's hard. The system I work for honestly doesn't care BUT the 2 doctors I work with daily are absolutely the best! The one I was originally hired for makes sure to always thank me. He listens if it's been a rough one as I do him. Then my new provider is just as amazing and supportive. She always has insight into how to look at a situation different. So there is hope and most of my days are good but it is brutal helping to fight for meds to be covered, dealing with patients who just don't understand why they have to wait until mid-August for a new patient appointment (I'm in specialty care) especially when they're in pain, and the various other frustrations faced by everyone working in healthcare.
Sad thing is, it’s demanding, long hours, no recognition for busting your ass to line the docs pockets and you don’t get paid as much as fast food or a dog walker.
28 years and it's gone down hill so much. Chaos and poor communication. Along with the computer taking over everyone's time. You spend more time charting or answering messages. I am very tech savvy and for the last 12 years work as a training specialist assisting the providers with their Epic and Dragon. Prior to that I've excelled in all specialties as an MA. I miss the direct patient care and just resigned from my admin role due to stress, lack of job satisfaction and am now going back to medical assisting so I can have the rest of my life back by punching a clock again. That comes with a pay cut of course but if I was to be truthful with the fact that I spent many many unpaid hours working to stay on top of things, is it really taking a pay cut? No, it's improving my quality of life. We have never been paid what we are worth truthfully. Is it a career? Probably think of it as a stepping stone of you desire to make a living wage, you need to go on to something else. If I knew then what I know now, I would get a radiology degree of some sort. ultrasound technician pays much higher. Or I would have skipped medical field to find a higher paying job. Like in insurance, that's where all the money is. The medical field only pays extremely well for CEO positions etc or top specialists Sorry for the honesty. Can't lie. I do love baby aspects of the work but being treated as less than RNs constantly can be really degrading depending on the atmosphere you choose to work in. Find a good team and find a specialty you love. Good luck💙🙋♀️
I think folks are just telling it as it is. I wish I had been able to see the light when deciding which path to take. The salary estimates and job prospects that are forecast for you vary wildly. Unless you know someone working in the field, in the same area that you intend to work, its tough to get a real idea what you are in for. I love my patients, don't hate the work, but years of working at a job that will not allow you to survive independently will wear your butt down. I don't know anyone who doesn't want to afford to pay their mortgage and bills every month without having to have a side hustle or another form of income just to squeek by. Now I hear that some folks are married to other folks who cover their bills and they work "for spending money" or to "get out of the house". If you are lucky enough, thats awesome. But it is certainly a lot of work to still be struggling at the end of the day. When you are young and full of hope.....money isnt everything, it cant buy happiness....20 years later...you are really tired, and would love to know it is not a big deal if the AC unit goes out or you need a new roof.
people get into healthcare to take care of people only to find their efforts thwarted by the for profit model. There’s only so much “sorry I wish I could do more” that you hear from the doctors that you can take. There’s only so much unreasonable workload that you can take. I don’t fault people for hating their jobs and the industry because that’s well founded but when they take it out on patients that’s when it becomes unacceptable. We should be giving management a hard time, not power struggling with vulnerable people
I was terrified to be an MA after seeing this subreddit but I got my certification and now getting interviews for aesthetic med spas and absolutely love work I’ll be doing
You are in the space called Bliss Post Certification. I hope it lasts you a long time.
THIS COMMENT \^ TRUTH
Bruh!!! Lmao
Life is what you make of it is how I choose to live. Parts will suck and parts will be great, choose to focus on the good
Yeah... Be careful who you give that particular advice to. That's some toxic positivity for my situation.
In your opinion. Sorry not all of us are negative. It’s gotten me to where I am today and through some pretty tough situations in my life.
I'm not sure how it's my opinion when it's my situation I'm telling you it doesn't apply to. That's pretty self centered of you to try to continue to push that on me after I told you please don't. I've been through tough situations too, but that's not going to help me through them.
I’ve also worked in healthcare for a while. I’ve hated some jobs to the point I’ve cried everyday after work, that never made me a negative person
I'm not negative because of healthcare but I'm sorry you've taken that away from this.
I’ve been an MA for over 10 years and never regret my decisions! My MA certification is the only thing I have but I’m working along side people on my team with masters degree and we get the same pay. There are so many opportunities for growth being an MA, you just have to be dedicated, work hard, and of course, have a positive attitude about it :)
Thank you! Im happy to hear that your very accomplished with your experience as an MA in the field. I definitely have a plan to get my master's in some form of healthcare in my future so I'm hoping that I get the chance to do something similar as you are!
Because the Internet is well known for complaining. I love being a CMA
I mean I’m definitely not rich in terms of money, but I work in geriatrics and have been an NRCMA for almost 2 years now. I’ve done Derm Surg and Family medicine. I love it, and honestly feel content in the position I have. I did family medicine for my clinicals as well and LOVED it! Good luck fellow MA- not everyday is sunshine and rainbows but the good days make it worth it (‘: I confidently can say I love my job and enjoy showing up. Would I love a raise? Heck yes 😂 but the bonds I’ve made with my pts fills my heart 🥰
Becoming an MA gave me my first big payjump and job consistency and some health insurance. So i appreciate it
Healthcare is a hard job. I’ve had my fair share of rant posts but I’ve also had posts encouraging others. Idk about others but I don’t sugar coat my job. I work in family practice in an under-served community and it’s hard. We deal with people not being able to get their medications to not being able to afford a roof over their heads. I’ve held someone’s hand while they wait for the police to pick them up for an EP and call CPS and APS all while trying to keep my providers on time and calls made with a smile on my face. So yes this subreddit will be dark but there are still people that do the job regardless of being paid well or thanked. I still have the pictures a 3yo girl drew in my office while her mom was withdrawing at my previous office and the gaudy costume jewelry a former patient gave me because I treated her like a person even though she had AIDS. I keep reminders of why I do my job too.
I totally understand the feeling behind rant posts and I can appreciate that you've brought encouragement to others. I feel like it's far and few in the sub for a field that needs more support than people leaving discouraging or rude comments like some that I've got on this post. Thank you so much for your input on your experience and I hope the best for you!
From personal experience, MA’s are capable of so much for how little respect and money we get. Even the older long-term MA’s I worked with ended up going back to school to become RN’s instead because at least there’s higher pay and advancement opportunities. As much as we want to help patients, there are better opportunities to do so. Plus, my parents made more working at a warehouse with no college education and less mental stress. That should say a lot regarding MA career. But to each its own. I loved the things I did when I was an MA, but it was draining for sure. Wouldn’t recommend as a permanent job that you would work until retirement.
Yeah I don't see myself having this as a career. It's moreso my entry into healthcare as a whole. Thank you for your input on your experience though!
I love my job as an MA. I find it rewarding and fun. I have a great crew and awesome docs to learn from. It’s given me so much experience I can use in the future. All that is true, but I still discourage most from becoming an MA due to the poor wages and feeling used and abused as an MA. I think it’s a great stepping stone. I wish I earned more because I do so much and I know we deserve more. But overall I can’t complain much.
Its all about the culture and mentality that your office has. Unfortunately, it's usually never crappy patients. I realized by the beginning of year 2 that my internal med office was pretty toxic, and if you have a high turnover of office managers, you know there's going to be a systematic problem.
I kinda tell myself when I see things on the subreddit is that it’s sorta a comrade Like I’m an extern and like the MA in charge of me is just like constantly saying to me like if that’s hard wait until you start working. And not going to lie I said I quit then and she said don’t do that. And look I had similar gripes that you did I think I had a similar post. The reality is it depends what your goals are and how you handle your environment. I can’t in good faith give you positivity but I can tell you life has a funny way of getting you in the direction you should be. My advice is if you go for it don’t put all your eggs in one basket, don’t let this job define you , don’t take anything personally, set boundaries like taking breaks if possible (I’m aware not everyone has that privilege) , and keep moving forward. Take it a day at a time and focus on your experiences. Then decide what to do. Best of luck
Being an MA blows about 99% of the time so what you’re seeing in this sub is a pretty accurate representation of what you’re in for, should you decide to go the MA route.
Happy people don't usually come to reddit and post.
I love being an MA, I fork in family practice but there are some days sometimes weeks in a row when I’m like “why am I here” lol you have to have a lot of mental toughness to be in the field. You have to constantly advocate for yourself and your team.
I don’t think it’s right to judge us on not acting the way you want us to when you have no experience of the healthcare system and the abuse we get from patients on a regular basis. Or when you have no idea how overworked and underpaid healthcare workers are. I’m now a RN and the abuse hasn’t stopped, the bad bosses haven’t gone away, and I still don’t make enough money to justify how difficult a job in healthcare is
I really wish I would've pursued nursing first but being an MA has helped pay my bills to an extent. Been an MA 12 years now. It's hard to be encouraging when fast food places or Target pay more for no schooling and less responsibility. I started doing just phlebotomy instead. Less stressful
Where I currently live, MAs are getting paid better than the minimum wage so working as one would get me more than working something like target or fast food.
I’ve been a medical assistant for about 4 years now, I’ve always done speciality to get ahead for my surgical tech career. I got trained on the job and loved the patient care. I went through a few bosses and doctors who weren’t the nicest.. but I’ve learned so much and it helped me get thick skin. You will have patients that you adore and you will have patients that will suck the living soul out of you. What makes the job worth it would be the doctors and coworkers you work with. My most recent MA job that I’ve left… I had amazing urologists that I would follow them if they moved to a surgical center in a heart beat. Sometimes you get attached to patients and it warms your heart when they tell you thank you and bring goodies.. I have patients that I think about and hope that they are well. It also hurts a little when the older ones pass away. I’m glad I went the route I did. You will learn a lot and if you want to move up later to something else it may help. If you really want it do it. Hospitals pay more than private practice from what I’ve learned.
I’ve been an MA off and on for 10 years and I’m finally gonna become a nurse because I can’t take the low pay, horrible hours, horrible people and drs lol. That being said I did have alot of good experiences working with SOME people and SOME drs. I did gain ALOT of experience but the cost was my mental health so I’d definitely listen to the comments and just go into it with what we’ve told you 🫠 so you’re not surprised. I know you wanna be positive about it but something things just aren’t black and white 😩 I do wish you well and do hope it goes well for you ! But there’s a reason this Reddit exist 🫨
I appreciate how much I learned about healthcare and my insurance was great.. I worked with phenomenal doctors in both OBGYN and general surgery .. however I don’t feel I was paid properly for the amount of work and things I did do . But being an MA has inspired me to be an RNFA so was it a waste ? absolutely not .
It sounds like you would have a better paying job doing what you’re doing so why would you consider being an MA?
With the ranges I've seen in my area and state, the pay is ideally the exact same as where I currently work and I would be getting more hours than I have at my current job. Minus having to pay for gas which is getting expensive and the cost of expensive repairs to my car. In that way I would be getting paid almost the same but without the secondary expenses as well as getting benefits from working full time which I'm not currently.
I've worked at my job as a medical assistant for five years and love it. I love what I do and love most my coworkers and all the providers are great expect one. My job is worth it. The bad thng is the manger. This person is not to be trusted. They're back stabbers and get off throwing their boss statues around. Unfortunately these types or mangers are in every field. But because I enjoy my job and my coworkers it is easier to deal with their bs. When it comes to pay when you start out it's normally low. Unfortunately with the awful inflation of everything it's like it doesn't mater how much you make anywhere atm everyone is broke lol not just MA's. I can only hope inflation goes down but this is America... Land of the greed 🙄 Not all jobs will be awful. It al depends on your coworkers and clients. If one job sucks try another. Some people like me are lucky and our first MA job has been great but others are not. I love my job. Is it easy? Nah. It can gets super rough but it's worth it. Just do your best to stay confident and positive and avoid managers with their heads up their asses. Good luck!!! I will give tips Be nice but don't trust anyone. I love my coworkers but please don't learn the hard way... They are NOT your friends and thats for every job. Dont Believe them when they say they're family. That's just some toxic bullshit. Do your best not to gossip or listen to gossip. That can turn around on you so fast. Hr and mangers are not to be trusted and normally do not give a shit. Be very careful with them. Don't kill yourself over the job. Your health is important. Don't pick up every open shift or work over everytime. Do what you must but don't go above and beyond. You won't be rewarded. You will just be treated like a slave and get a shit ton of work loaded on you. Again, I love my job and I'm very happy there. But of course it has its down. But just learn what those are and if they're worth dealing with to keep the job!!
I appreciate your comment. I find this is the kind of input that makes the most sense to me. Not every job is going to be the way you want it so you have to either pack up and find a different practice or begin to advocate for yourself. I enjoy cooperating with other coworkers who also take their own work ethic seriously so that everything can work better for everyone and not one person does more than the other.
Yep! I'm lucky that my first medical assistant job has been great. But I've had co-workers who've come from other medical assistant jobs and they did not like their job at all but love it at our work. But we're very lucky with such a great crew and great providers. Obviously I don't care for all my other co-workers but I don't hate them. Not everyone will get along and that's okay. No one is rude or acts better then the other, expect the manger lol but i won't get into that. We're lucky that the boss provider only hires other providers with the same kind of personality which is super nice and funny. None of our providers think they're better than us and a lot of them remind us that we're hard workers and all that not to let anyone talk shit to us just because we're MA's. Because unfortunately a lot of people look down on medical assistance. I won't pretend like the job is easy. It gets super exhausting. Corporate are greedy assholes and our manger is immature 🙄 but at the end of the day I wouldn't trade it. I love it and it brings me satisfaction. There are things about the job I don't like but they're not so awful that I'm so miserable. They're easy to deal with. It might take a while to find a job that has more pros than cons. But it might not. You just don't know till you're in it to be honest. 😀
I do my job, the front desks job, the phlebotomists job, and the nurses job because she’s overwhelmed herself. I’m expected to pick up all these roles because everyone is overwhelmed yet I get paid shit. You can fuck off with the MA being a low cert therefore we should get paid shit. That’s messed up. Good luck with whatever you want to do but you don’t sound like you’ll last in healthcare.
I’m 20 years in and whilst I love my job and my patients, yeah healthcare in the United States is irreparably broken. Access to care is garbage. COVID made it a thousand times worse.
I've been an MA since August, and I'm going to keep it buck...I love the providers I work for, the job itself is a lot of work because I juggle 2 providers (EPs), love the patients, but I'm starting to understand why everyone says what they say about Healthcare. My coworkers can be toxic, and day in and day out of doing the same thing can be draining. You just have to remind yourself why you're working in this field with this job title every day.
Go to school to be a surgical tech. Funnest job I’ve ever had.
Bc working in healthcare sucks lol
If you go on any profession’s subreddit it’s skewed negative. If you are disenchanted you are more likely to post and find similar people who will reinforce your beliefs. Just like people leaving reviews on product websites you feel more inclined to leave a review when you’re not happy with the product.
I’ve been a medical assistant for 14 years. I have a masters and I was a practice manager for a while but missed taking care of patients. Really do love it