Career Tips & Advice

How MA Prepares You for Nursing

Concorde Staff

Concorde Staff

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Updated November 16, 2016. The information contained in this blog is current and accurate as of this date.
medical assistant

Medical Assistant is one of the most popular programs we have at Concorde. And, it certainly can be a rewarding career in and of itself. However, being a Medical Assistant can also be just the start, a springboard to another health care career you might find even more fulfilling.

Concordes Medical Assistant program not only trains you to be successful and thriving in that health care field, but gives you an excellent foundation to carry with you should you choose to go into Nursing, Surgical Technology, or any other handful of health care careers Concorde offers.

 

Medical Assistant opens doors

 

"Being a Medical Assistant can open many doors for you without the high cost of programs you might not be interested in," said Tamera Brotherns, Medical Assistant/Medical Office Administration Program Director at Concordes campus in San Bernardino, Calif. "For those who don't exactly know what you want to do after completing the MA program, I would advise continuing to work in the field as an MA, find what specialty you find interesting and learn everything you can."

As Brotherns explains, when you are working as an MA, you do many things such as taking care of sick and sometimes terminal people. You get to understand how they feel, and you are a part of the healing process or the end-of-life process.

"Either way, you are making a difference, one patient at a time," Brotherns said.

When you do so many things as an MA, you get exposure to many various aspects of health care. When you assist in minor surgery, for instance, you might decide to further your education in Concorde's Surgical Technology program. Or, you might realize that becoming a Vocational Nurse might make it easier to work in the Oncology Department, where you could work with things like IV chemotherapy treatments.

Perhaps you decide you like an urgent care setting and would like to become a Registered Nurse and work trauma. If you perform your MA extern at a family practice office, you might want to go back to school to get your LVN, which gives you the education requirements you need to apply.

 

Being a Medical Assistant gives you loads of options

 

"Whatever you decide, I can promise you that being an MA first will give you the options to look into many more branches of the nursing field that you weren't really sure about in the beginning," Brotherns said. "Now that you have all this MA experience, you now know that you are ready and focused on your next step into the medical field."

"Let being an MA guide you, and you will be pleasantly surprised where it takes you."

There's one more thing Brotherns would like to say regarding being a Medical Assistant.

"If you find that you enjoy being an MA, there is nothing wrong with that," she said. "I can tell you from personal experience and as a graduate of Concorde myself that it has been so rewarding for me to be an MA for over 24 years. And, now that I am your Program Director, I can tell you that I know what great opportunities you will have in this field."

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  1. Program length may be subject to change dependent on transfer credits and course load. Please refer to current course catalog for more information. Concorde does not guarantee admittance, graduation, subsequent employment or salary amount.

  2. Professional certification is not a requirement for graduation, may not be a requirement for employment nor does it guarantee employment.

  3. Financial aid is available to those who qualify but may not be available for all programs. Concorde does not guarantee financial aid or scholarship awards or amounts.

  4. Clinical hour requirements and delivery may vary by campus location and may be subject to change. Concorde does not guarantee clinical site assignments based upon student preference or geographic convenience; nor do clinical experiences guarantee graduation, post-clinical employment or salary outcomes.

  5. Registration and certification requirements for taking and passing these examinations are not controlled by Concorde, but by outside agencies, and are subject to change by the agency without notice. Therefore, Concorde cannot guarantee that graduates will be eligible to take these exams, at all or at any specific time, regardless of their eligibility status upon enrollment.

  6. Externships are a non-paid in-person learning experience, whose length and location may be subject to change. Concorde does not guarantee externship placement, graduation, post-externship employment or salary outcomes.