(Pre-PA) Medical Assistant School Question

[MarleneStar]

I am trying to become a PA and want to strengthen my application for programs and am thinking of attending a college such as centura college, ECPI or Concorde to get my medical assisting certificate. Do for profit schools like this tend to be frowned upon or not desirable by pa program administrators? I have my bachelors degree from a university and am just wanting to get this certificate for hands on experience. 
Thank you!! 

[DiggySRNA]

Have you scouted medical offices? Primary Care or Urgent Care? These offices tend to hire unlicensed/non-certified personnel for MA positions and train them to their likings. Heck, some hospitals hire and provide on the job training for ED/ER Techs. 

I started as an MA before I went to nursing school and the Urgent Care trained me on the job. I say this because some MA certifying programs can take anywhere from 6-24 months and can be expensive. 

To answer your exact question; No, PA programs do not care if the MA program is for profit or non-profit. The certification is a stepping stone and I don't think they care where you got it. 

Edited March 15 by DiggySRNA

[68WEMTto65DPAC]

On 3/14/2024 at 12:26 PM, MarleneStar said:

I am trying to become a PA and want to strengthen my application for programs and am thinking of attending a college such as centura college, ECPI or Concorde to get my medical assisting certificate. Do for profit schools like this tend to be frowned upon or not desirable by pa program administrators? I have my bachelors degree from a university and am just wanting to get this certificate for hands on experience. 
Thank you!! 

No, it doesn’t matter where you get your MA certificate from. You can see if you find somewhere they can train you OTJ and get you certified with experience. But that would take longer and would mean lower pay.

[ohiovolffemtp]

Many vocational schools have programs to train CNA's, MA's, phlebotomy techs, EKG techs, etc.  Those may be more convenient and cheaper than the for profit colleges.  They are also likely to have connections to local facilities that recruit and hire their graduates.  Getting certified as an EMT is a good way to get a job as an ED tech, which will probably give you the broadest medical experience.  From a quick look at my local vocational school's web site, many of these programs cost about $2,500.

[SedRate]

On 3/14/2024 at 11:26 AM, MarleneStar said:

I have my bachelors degree from a university and am just wanting to get this certificate for hands on experience. 

I like your thought process. A pre-med friend and I did the same and spent money to get the training and a certificate. It did help me understand patient care some as well as terminology. However, I never ended up working as one. Ultimately, I'm not sure that the nursing assistant certification actually helped with my PA school application and did very little to help my understanding of healthcare. Being a student is very different than being an employee. For the sake of your professional journey, it would behoove you to work a paid position in healthcare and learn what it's like from that perspective vs limited-to-no responsibility roles like volunteer, student, and shadower. If you intend to gain this training and experience, then I encourage you to actually do something with it professionally. Or bypass the expense altogether and find a place that will pay you to train and employ you. It will be a great learning experience, give you paid healthcare experience, and likely create a professional network for you to connect with and utilize down the road which is very important as you'll come to find.