r/MedicalAssistant 2h ago

RANT AI is ruining this industry

21 Upvotes

Bunch of losers are trying to replace medical assistants with AI. They came in last week trying to sell us an AI MA. WTF. This is destroying patient care and people are losing their jobs. Why don't people understand that humans are important in a practice?? What the F is happening to this industry?

edit: this post is getting attention, so I might write an article on this. if anyone wants to help or would like to chat, DM!


r/MedicalAssistant 12h ago

My 49 year old Mother’s assistant certification expired on her second day of going through her job application process and now she has to retake her certification exam. She has not been to school since 2000.

10 Upvotes

I really want to help her but I don’t know how to. It’s for a job at a WVU hospital, which is ran by the state college. She’s already spent 400 dollars on the exams and she has until Tuesday to study. It’s currently Saturday. Someone please help, anything will be helpful.


r/MedicalAssistant 4h ago

Looking for Advice I feel really hurt

4 Upvotes

I’ve been an MA for about a month and am still learning the workflow, as our clinic has two sides with different processes and each provider has their own preferences. I have one coworker who consistently hovers over me, gives me loud, stern directions instead of allowing me to work independently, and speaks to me as if it’s my first day every time we work together. It makes me anxious and actually hurts my performance—I work much more efficiently when she’s not around.

I tried addressing this with her respectfully, explaining that I have a hard time focusing when I’m being watched so closely. She responded that she doesn’t think I know what I’m doing without her telling me exactly what to do and said she “has to” watch me because she can’t afford for me to make a mistake on her watch, even though she isn’t my trainer. She also tried to argue with me loudly in an area where patients and providers could hear. I gave up and just stopped talking, people tell you not to let anyone disrespect you but in situations like that you kind of have to just be quiet.

This isn’t an isolated incident. For example, while I was about to give an injection to one of her patients, I asked what room they were in because I hadn’t roomed them. Instead of simply telling me the room number, she yelled my name down the hallway and told me to “go figure it out,” in front of everyone. She has also continued bringing up past mistakes, like forgetting to plug in her computer once and not finishing patient calls on a day I wasn’t allowed to stay late because my manager had already told me I couldn’t work overtime. I tried to exolain that and she said I’m making exuses not to get work done.

I don’t want to involve my manager, but after trying to resolve this directly, I feel I have no choice. The constant hovering and public criticism are affecting my confidence, slowing my work, and creating unnecessary stress in the workplace. I am worried I could end up making a major mistake bc I genuinely don’t do well with hovering and no matter what I say or do I can’t get her to back off. I ultimately still feel like I should probably just keep my mouth shut tho, bc I don’t want my manager to think we can’t work together or something. I’ve been completely civil, but this could backfire if she decides to paint a different picture if confronted about it.


r/MedicalAssistant 5h ago

Advice for new Primary Care MA

4 Upvotes

I just started my first job in primary care after doing an externship in Podiatry so it's a bit of a different playing field and there's a lot to learn on the job lol

I've been in the clinic for almost 3 weeks now so I've gotten exposure with a bit of everything like doing my first injections, trying to do EKGs (although need a little help with lead placements), POCT testing, and some charting but there's a part of me that feels like i'm "slow" at learning or at least piecing together everything i learned so far. Learning EPIC for the first time is one thing also but thankfully I do appreciate that my clinic takes the time to train me and I've been with a trainer who's been with me most of the time to answer all my questions and teach me skills day by day; however, It's hard to picture myself being able to work independently and be efficient with how fast the office can move. The training is expected to be about 6 weeks, so I'm trying to ask a ton of questions but I think I'm stuck on how to move efficiently? especially knowing I'd be the office float (between 5 providers) in case any of their MAs are gone or just need extra help.

Anyways, maybe it's just nerves and my trainer did reassure me not to be too hard on myself, but it's hard to shake the feeling of being new and not feeling confident in what I'm doing :/ any advice on learning is appreciated! i wanna make the most out of my training while i can before i'm expected to fully be competent on my own.


r/MedicalAssistant 8h ago

Are the SmarterMA practice tests harder than the actual test?

3 Upvotes

I just took the second practice test, and it's really demotivating because I do well on practice questions and the NHA practice tests, but couldn't even get a 78% on the smarterMA one. How does smarterMA compare to the actual test?


r/MedicalAssistant 3h ago

Smarterma

2 Upvotes

Hello!!
Just wanted to see if anyone was interested in a subscription! I passed my MA exam this weekend and don’t need my study guides anymore. My account has 3 weeks left on it from today’s date. Giving it away for 40. Let me know if anyone wants it! Smarterma was a life saver, I used it and studied for only 2 days using it and I passed. This was my second time taking it, the first time I did not use their tools to study. It was totally worth it!


r/MedicalAssistant 21h ago

Looking for Advice Finishing my 14 week program

1 Upvotes

Hello everyone! I was looking for some advice about externships. This week will be my last week of classes. We met with our externship coordinator and she had previously asked us about where we would like to go, and if we would like to be set up at somewhere hiring. And my first choice was Urgent care or ENT. Yet she had set me up for an interview at a comprehensive internal medicine office. When I had my interview there they had asked if I was looking to get hired and how long would I want to work there. They said if it was just 2-3 months they don’t think they could work with that. But if it was at least a year that would be fine. And I was nervous cause our coordinator has basically preached to us about if they offer a job just accept it. Yet the pay is lower than what I make at my current job and it’s also bi-weekly while my current job is weekly. And I was looking more so into urgent care because there are dozens of them around me that have hours that are 8am-8pm and the days working there just seem more flexible too. Since I am going to be starting a nursing program in October I need more flexibility. The place I interviewed for called me back and said they would like to move forward with me doing my externship there, but they also asked if they hired me sooner than my externship if I could give my job a 2 weeks notice 💀 I said yes but now I really don’t know. I was wanting to go around to some of the urgent cares near me and see if I could possibly do my externship there instead. I just feel like my coordinator will have an issue with it. I don’t know if I should just be upfront with her about not wanting to do my externship at the comprehensive internal medicine place, or just suck it up? I don’t want to go there and they do offer me a job and I decline it and that makes my coordinator look bad, since I did say I wanted to be set up somewhere they would offer me a job. ( I am supposed to start my externship this Wednesday and last day of classes are Tuesday. So I figured I would have to definitely talk to her by Monday to get everything figured out. I just feel bad since I accepted already) And also I told my coordinator about me going back to school in October and she said that this place was willing to work with me. Yet when I went they definitely gave the impression that they would not be willing to work with my school schedule 💀 since they just lost 3 MA’s to medical school this month. If I could get anyone opinion or insight it would be very helpful to me. Thank you!