Medical Assistant (Rant)

I have many pet peeves. Some that are very unreasonable and I'm a big enough person to admit that. As I mentioned before, I went to a trade school when I was 19 to become a Medical Assistant. I was foolish and racked up debt for a piece of paper that certifies that I am trained in the fine arts of 'brown-nosing'. I accrued thousands in debt, never broke the 30k salary mark--just to find out in a couple of years that there were places that offered the training for FREE. I immediately ended up hating medical assisting with a passion. What's really bizarre is that I've developed an even greater hatred for those dreaded scrubs that I see women prancing around in. 'You really think you're making a difference? You really think this is the bees knees, don't you?' I think it also has to do with me living in an area where people are ignorant to certain roles in the health care field and model their scrubs all hours of the day, even when they are not working. They are Medical Assistants but insists on telling people that they are nurses.

Why does this bother me so much, you ask? Because I'm a miserable, nit-picking individual, and because of this:

I came across a Youtube video, quite accidentally, which inspired my annoyance and anger about this subject not half an hour ago. There is this woman, who is very grown-up (meaning in her early fifties) who decided to document her 'journey' as a non-traditional student in, wait for it, 'Medical Assistant School'! Honestly, I didn't even make it to 30 seconds before clicking the whole goddamn thing off. Listen, I'm no Oprah. I'm no spring chicken. Hell, I haven't even worked for a living since 2004, but it pains me to the core when I see women similar to myself that don't want...more in life. Is it really all about praying, hair, clothes, and men? I am fully aware that there are some women that want more that either go for it or want to but can't. I realize that I'm fortunate to be in a position to say I'm going for it and have the emotional and financial support of a spouse...but still...I see the whole picture and it goes beyond what my words can express.

I'm sorry (I'm not) if I have offended anyone with what may seem as a 'hoity toity' disposition and even sorrier (I'm not) to say that: Being a Medical Assistant is NOTHING to be excited about. At all. It's a shitty trade that shouldn't exist. There is nothing in that office that can't be done by someone else that didn't take out loans to complete the program. What do we really do as medical assistants? We take history (oooh), we hold the cup so that the MD can drop the biopsy in (oooh), we take blood (OOOH), and let's not forget the huge responsibility of calling in scripts or calling patients to tell them 'everything was normal.' My favorite responsibility of all was being entrusted with the Doc's lunch order...oooh, the glory days.



~Surly