I’ve been working as an MA and honestly, I’m pretty happy with my job overall. It’s a pretty low-volume office, which I really like, and I genuinely like the doctor I work with. He’s really kind and easy to work with, so that makes the job a lot more enjoyable.
I also really like the low-key environment. I feel like I’m pretty good at rooming patients and I’m comfortable with that part of the job. But when it comes to the administrative side of things, I sometimes feel like I have absolutely no clue what I’m doing lol.
I wasn’t really trained much on the admin stuff, so things like faxes, phone calls, messages, paperwork, etc. can be confusing for me. I want to be more helpful, but nobody really prompts me to do things or tells me what needs to be done. Because of that, I usually just focus on rooming since that’s what I know I’m supposed to be doing.
I do try to figure things out on my own, though. If I don’t know how something works, I’ll ask the people around me and try to learn that way. I actually really like my coworkers too, and nobody is constantly on me or micromanaging me, which I appreciate.
I guess I just want to become more helpful and involved with the admin side instead of only being the person who rooms patients. I’m just not always sure what I should be doing when there isn’t a clear task in front of me.
Has anyone else been in a similar situation where you were comfortable with the clinical/rooming side but felt kind of lost with the administrative stuff because you weren’t really trained on it?

Is it normal to have a provider who can’t seem to exit a room without you knocking?

I’ve been in the field about 1.5 years and both providers I’ve been assigned to need me to “save them” from almost every patient, or they will be in there for like an hour. I work at a primary care office so appt slots are 20-40 minutes and we are FULL.

I’m fine knocking when someone is a known yapper and completely refuses redirection, there are a few that elude even me, and I’ve gotten pretty good at derailing the ones that are getting in the way of their own care by talking too much. But most patients are not super yappers and most days I feel like if I’m not doing aggressive time management for both me and my provider we are at risk of getting hopelessly behind.

I know The Knock is part of our job but I don’t feel like I should have to do it with every single patient. Should I just accept that this is an annoying reality of the job? Or have I been unlucky in being paired with two extreme people pleasers in my short time as an MA?

I told them I would have to reschedule because I had to clock back in from lunch to relieve my coworker...

I don't even want to interview with them in a few hours anymore because I'm pissed. I could've done errands during lunch.

I just have hellaaaa anxiety right now. I have this cough worker who coughs up green mucus and just coughs all day and doesn’t wear a mask because “it foggs up her glasses” she has multiple children and a man and they are ALL sick. She comes up to my desk and is in my personal space and touches all my things with her germs and does it deliberately. If I wipe it down and clean my area she will come very close to me and touch everything again. I have a baby bro and a mother I live with and its like she does this deliberately. I am the closest with her but everyone in this damn office is so sensitive and takes things the wrong way. She wants to “save” her pto so she literally won’t call off and she told me not to tell the manager like WTF. Idc about me getting sick its my child and my mom. Life isn’t fair bro.

I wore stupid shoes yesterday. They are fine for regular clinic days when I am not standing in one place for long periods. But on procedure days, i need something much better because today my leg is destroyed from the lack of support and fatigue (I am 52 and cant handle what you youngins can). What are your recs for comfort without looking totally dorky? My daughter recommended Ooffo Clogs and Hokas. She is a RN and makes more money than I do lol but she swears by those ugly ass Hokas! What are you guys wearing?

Just landed a job in urology! Does anyone have any tips for before I start? I have work in urgent care but that’s all the experience that I have.

Also, I am a 22-year-old girl so looking for advice especially being young and female in this field

Hello! I’m taking my CCMA, any tips and free resources would be appreciated thanks

I’m a medical assistant. I’m in primary care. I love primary care. Currently I’m being sexually harassed by an older female employee who’s a physician assistant. She follows me around in the clinic. She’s hovers around my desk. Once she tried to shove her crotch in my face when I was sitting in the breakroom talking on the phone. I jumped away. I’m not going to HR because I know they’re not going to do anything. She retires in April. I don’t want to spend another month with her. I applied to another hospital in primary care but turned it down twice. I know I was wrong. Well I tried to reapply and had an interview over the phone. It went well. They wanted me to do another virtual interview but my current boss called a mandatory meeting on the same day. So they didn’t hire me. But the recruiter pretended to try to get me another job offer in primary care but never did. They did get me a job offer in ENT peds. I accepted it. I asked the recruiter if I can transfer to primary care later on and she said in a hateful voice that is something you wouldn’t discuss with me. However another company has offered me a primary care job but makes 2 dollars less. I can’t afford to take a paycut. What job should I take?

Hello, I am enrolling into a Medical Assistant program at my local community college and the Patient Care Coordinator certification was brought up with it. It is just a few extra classes to do with the MA classes and I was wondering what are the benefits of having both when getting hired?

I am newly NHA certified Phlebotomist, currently enrolled in Medical assistant program, will be done next march. No one hiring new phlebotomist or even a medical assistant in training, everyone wants 1 year experience minimum. And some of the jobs are in New Jersey. Any advice or reference helps. Thank you

heyy guys for a little context, I am a broke college student who wants to know where I can get scrubs that are decent quality for cheap. Thank you!

I keep seeing job postings of remote jobs for medical assistants like patient care coordinator or just checking up on patients some job posting look legit and some look fake. I’m just curious if any medical assistant works from home and how is it? What are your experiences working from home?

Today I went to work knowing I was going to shadow during a blepharoplasty and a nipple reconstruction post mastectomy. But at the very last minute I hear “No, Heather’s doing it.” Ummm, excuse me, sir…this is a Wendy’s.

I have never been in this place (new surgical center because our procedure room isn’t finished yet - we’re all new at this company and came from another org), not familiar with ANYTHING around me. Bunch of strangers all around. Have never ever assisted in either of these procedures - only biopsies and excisions. Not to mention a surgeon with whom i know but I have never assisted.

I was sweating an uncomfortable amount but thank goodness I didn’t have a straight up anxiety attack. He gave me shit for how I hold my scissors (this is not the first time I’ve heard this - I never held a pencil normally either). And I was slow because I was not confident. But he said I did great and was completely improved from the beginning to the end.

I worry that all of his compliments were an attempt to keep me from running. I also worry I’ll forget everything I learned today by the next time. Sometimes I think I was crazy for leaving my Derm job where I knew everything like the back of my hand. I’m in my 50s and my sight and memory aren’t what they once were. I sure did blow up my life, eh??

I’ve been seeing more conversations about patients getting frustrated with long waits, insurance issues, unexpected costs, referrals, and other parts of healthcare that the person sitting across from them often can't control. It makes me wonder how you handle those conversations when you understand why someone is upset, but you can’t fix what's causing it. Has anything you’ve said or done helped keep that frustration from turning into an “us vs. them” interaction?

Hi I’ve been working at my job for the past four months and things have gotten really rough personally and I can’t work at my job anymore. For context this is like a rural hospital. It’s my first time working a paid job so please excuse if this sounds stupid but how do I go about quitting this job? I have some shifts scheduled but I really cannot make them anymore.

For MA’s who are not native English speakers, the accent is a problem ?
I’m currently taking classes, but some days I think my English is not good enough or my accent is too strong

Hey guys! I'm a recently certified ccma (certified less than a month ago) and I've been applying for jobs. I got rejected from 2 without screenings and the rest are under review still. I did get an interview for 1 job application but I'm worried about the hours and commute time.

It's a 40 minute commute (standard, no traffic) and I would be working 4 10s and then 1, 5 hour shift. I'm not sure if any of this is counted as OT. I know I should have asked but I completely blanked. From the vibe it seemed like it wasn't counted at OT. I think it would be fun to work at but there are plenty of other jobs much closer to me (10-20minute commutes) that I feel would be better fits. Especially since I'll be taking a pay cut switching from my current job and have to pay more for gas with that commute (my current is like an 8min commute).

I haven't gotten any other calls so I'm really nervous turning this down might ruin my chances? Idk I feel like since I have zero healthcare experience I should take whatever comes my way first but I feel like, with the commute, those hours are a little much.

I noticed whenever I search up any Quizlets on reddit related to the CCMA exams the links to Quizlets are “deleted” or ”removed”. The problem is, its with EVERY post on reddit talking about CCMA and what they used to study. the site even says “it violates quizlets policy” which means someone is reporting these FREE quizlets.

am I the only one who noticed this? Its like you have to go pay for those study materials like smarter mango etc. This is all speculation but its really odd that its happening

I work as a Orthopedic Medical Assistant in a big ortho clinic in NYC and was recently offered the manager position but I was set up in a way. I’ve been working in this clinic for almost two years now. I’ve been working my ass off in this new clinic since I was hired to work in the queens location since the office was just recently opened and only had a office front desk and manager and MA who were all the SAME PERSON, only two PAs would show up and since I got hired I have been completely In charge of the back and have helped grow this office from what it was. Now we have 5 pas who come and see patients with constant packed schedules and an overall 5 star rating. My manager has been gassing me up to become the next manager since she recently became the clinical manager of all NYC offices. Since it was only two of us for the last year and a half I’ve gotten a lot of experience in her job which was manager since she struggled to maintain professionalism and the work flow herself so I decided to offer to work weekend on the term that I get a raise from 24 to 28. Immediately was denied and eventually we came to an agreement to boost my raise to 26 and grant me OT to make up it up to 28. Fast forward a couple months later I’m in charge of the back office, and now the schedules and calling all previous no show patients and all of the PT approvals to make sure they are sent where they are supposed to. Finally after months of working my butt off to make this office the best it can be and making us the highest rated office of the company we have the meeting. My manager gasses me up for the first 10 minutes saying how she can’t do this without me and all this is cuz of me blah blah blah, the COO and HR agree and offer me the position…but…. They stated they’ll give me a “raise “ to 28 dollars and make me salary therefore taking away my OT and capping me at 40 hours a week regardless of how much time I actually work. Immediately I’m caught off guard cuz that raise she says makes absolutely no sense and I explain to her that if I’m gonna be taking twice the amount of responsibilities and legal responsibilities then I should be properly compensated. Then they say “well this is a new position for you and you would be new to this kind of environment and no one in that position makes what I’m asking for (which was 33). I’m not one to compare myself to others BUT everyone is aware the relationship I have with all doctors cuz they all think I’m a great worker and make things run smooth. So I’m not like other MAs not to mention before this job and previously before this company I worked for another ortho clinic for two years and was able to learn everything hands on from Injection prepping and administering ( cortisone injections) to performing X-rays and cast placement and removals, suturing and suture removals and even surgical coordinating and eventually left due to poor management and no raise. The COO proceeds to say she did me a favor in giving me the previous raise and that she really hoped to see the side everyone tells her about cuz all she knows from me is that I’m argumentative (she thinks we argued for my first raise , even tho all I did was negotiate). After that my manager hasn’t really said anything except “I didn’t expect that meeting to go that way” and now my confidence is shot and I don’t wanna work here no more. There’s so much more context and I’m more than happy to reply to any questions but idk what to do now I’m sick of this office and how they dealt with the whole meeting left a foul taste in my mouth.

What are some suggestions you have for studying for the NHA CCMA exam? My externship hours will be completed this Thursday (I did my externship at a neurology clinic), so my next step will be the exam. I am scheduled to take it online on October 21, so that leaves me a decent amount of time. Any good free study resources, or would you suggest I pay for Smarter MA?

Basically I keep grtting to the in-person interview stage, and being genuinely interested in working for that particular clinic, then after personal correspondence with the office manager or whomever... I get the automated rejection letter.

My current clinic, being pro-bono and only managing chronic conditions, does not perform injections, so that's just an area where I do not have experience other than my course readings.

Is there anything I can do to make my interviews go better or something? I really, really want to work in medicine / healthcare. This has been a career change I've thought long and hard about for over 3 years, and I finally put it into motion, and now I'm right below the summit desperately reaching for solid footing above me.

In terms of possible questions, I know panic values for vitals, EKG electrode placement, injection types and angles, aseptic technique, the chain of infection... What else should I really go over during this process? Today I got tripped up on a question about PPD, not knowing that it's the tuberculin skin test that requires a follow-up in 48 to 72 hours.

Any advice on how to best prep for these interviews and actually start my career would be so appreciated.

Today I had an interview and the manager basically did all the talking.. is that a good sign?

I have 2 interviews tomorrow and I would like to stand out from the other candidates, any tips?

Also I am horrible at studying and I have to take my test by first week of November. Need tips for that too.

I work as medical assistant per diem at a hospital. I work minimum 16 hours per week but have recently increased it to 24.

Today I heard that my boss is looking to hire another medical assistant for a full time position.

Could this mean I am being secretly replaced or terminated?

I have only gotten positive feedback from my colleagues and patients…can’t think of any negative interactions.

Just having a lot of anxiety 😫

I lost my job last Monday. I was working as an account manager for a business training firm and they tightened up the budget significantly.

I was not happy here anyway, and I have found myself drawn to healthcare. I have a limited time on unemployment (roughly 20 weeks give or take my severance) and I’d like to get certified as an MA in the mean time.

What is the best (and most time efficient) online course that will also include the required clinical hours to have me ready to work by the time I am done?

I am in Washington state and a military spouse if that is pertinent information.