Medical Assistant or Certified Nursing Aid?

As a Medical Assistant, you usually work in a doctor’s office or in an immediate care clinic. Some MA’s work as patient care techs in the hospital; they draw blood, do EKGs, and basic patient care, although they are not allowed to administer medication as they can in the doc’s office or clinic. A nurse’s aid does the “dirty work” so to speak. Bedpans, getting folks up to the toilet, baths, that sort of thing. If I were looking at the two, I would go for the Medical Assistant training. The office manager at my doctor’s practice was her MA for years and now she runs the front and back office of a 4 doctor practice with only a certificate from a vocational school and about 10 years of MA experience. There is no advancement for a Nursing Assistant unless you got to college for a nursing degree. I would imagine it’s easier to get a job as a CNA based on the turnover of workers, but as a Medical Assistant, you’re also trained with medical office skills, so insurance billing and other similar fields are open to you, as well, if you decide you don’t really enjoy direct patient contact. Again, CNA’s are pretty much stuck with nursing home jobs.