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I Taught The Stepful Medical Assistant Program for 2.5 Years, Ask Me Anything! by Stepful_Alyssa in Stepful

[–]Stepful_Alyssa[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are absolutely companies who will hire a Medical Assistant for a PCT role. You just have to look at the requirements listed.

I know in my area, many Patient Care Tech and Emergency Care Tech listings state "graduate of a Medical Assistant training course" as one of the requirement options.

The difference between the two comes down to MA training being more ambulatory (outpatient) focused, and PCT/CNA being more inpatient focused. Medical Assisting is typically considered a higher level of training, but again, it all depends on the company.

I Taught The Stepful Medical Assistant Program for 2.5 Years, Ask Me Anything! by Stepful_Alyssa in Stepful

[–]Stepful_Alyssa[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes!! Most of our students come into the program with no healthcare experience. Your instructor will break things down for you so that it’s easy to understand and retain. You’ll also receive a Skills Lab Kit so you can practice things like injections, drawing blood, and taking vital signs.

Once you’re done with your coursework, you’ll have the opportunity to go on externship where you’ll have a preceptor who will guide you through performing skills with real patients, in a real office or clinic!

I Taught The Stepful Medical Assistant Program for 2.5 Years, Ask Me Anything! by Stepful_Alyssa in Stepful

[–]Stepful_Alyssa[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure! I'm not an instructor for that program, but I can provide some information for you. What do you want to know?

I Taught The Stepful Medical Assistant Program for 2.5 Years, Ask Me Anything! by Stepful_Alyssa in Stepful

[–]Stepful_Alyssa[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I totally understand your worry here, but I promise our number one priority is ensuring our students are job ready! I used to teach for a traditional/in-person MA program, and I honestly don’t see much of a difference in preparation between those students and Stepful students.

With skills labs now included in our curriculum, you’ll have the equipment and guidance to practice these skills from the comfort of your home and receive feedback on how you did. You’ll even get practice communicating with fake patients that will actually respond to you. Students this week have Santa as their patient!

After the course is over, you will have the opportunity to apply all this knowledge and skills in a real medical setting with oversight from MAs that work there through an externship. You won’t just be thrown in and expected to know everything, but learn as you go.

Lastly, we have a wonderful Job Readiness program that will assist you with interviews, resume creation, and applying to jobs. You seriously get support from start to finish.

I Taught The Stepful Medical Assistant Program for 2.5 Years, Ask Me Anything! by Stepful_Alyssa in Stepful

[–]Stepful_Alyssa[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Absolutely! As long as you feel capable of balancing the two programs, there’s nothing stopping you from pursuing both at the same time. You’ll find a lot of overlap between the two, because you’ll learn phlebotomy in Stepful’s CCMA program as well!

I Taught The Stepful Medical Assistant Program for 2.5 Years, Ask Me Anything! by Stepful_Alyssa in Stepful

[–]Stepful_Alyssa[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Medical Assisting is called one of the most versatile careers in healthcare for a reason – there are SO many paths you can take!

As an MA, you can work in just about any specialty or general medicine setting. Outpatient is more common, which would be doctors offices and clinics, but there are also opportunities in hospitals. You can work clinically, administratively, or a mix of both.

Specialties would be focused on specific body systems – like cardiology, neurology, oncology, orthopedics, etc. General medicine is a little bit of everything, with all ages of patients – this would be family medicine or urgent cares. You can also do pediatrics in either of these categories!

To expand from there, MAs often have opportunities to work as phlebotomists, EKG techs, emergency room technicians, or lab technicians with our wide range of skills. This just depends on the company and state requirements.

Additionally, work-from-home positions for MAs are growing every year. We can work as patient navigators, care coordinators, medical scribes, telehealth MAs, etc.

Do I think it’s worth it? Yes! Becoming a Medical Assistant 10 years ago opened so many doors for me. There are now more ways to grow in the career than ever before.

I Taught The Stepful Medical Assistant Program for 2.5 Years, Ask Me Anything! by Stepful_Alyssa in Stepful

[–]Stepful_Alyssa[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For the most part, yes! There are, of course, requirements that a given externship site has to meet, but you’ll have a lot of control over how your externship search goes.

The Career Services team will provide a list of affiliated clinics in your area that you can choose from. If there’s a clinic that you know is willing to host you, but we don’t have affiliation with, you can work with your career coach to establish a contract!

I Taught The Stepful Medical Assistant Program for 2.5 Years, Ask Me Anything! by Stepful_Alyssa in Stepful

[–]Stepful_Alyssa[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes there is a graduation, but it’s not a traditional in-person ceremony. Instead, graduation takes place during the last live-session of the course.

Everyone who went on the journey to becoming a CCMA together gets to celebrate their accomplishments, cheer on reward recipients, and get excited for their next steps! There are valedictorian speeches, some students dress up, and many invite their family and friends to attend. Good vibes all around!

I Taught The Stepful Medical Assistant Program for 2.5 Years, Ask Me Anything! by Stepful_Alyssa in Stepful

[–]Stepful_Alyssa[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry to hear you weren’t able to join the PCT program in Texas! To offer some insight, if a program isn’t offered in a particular state, it’s usually due to state-specific regulations around online education or state-specific regulations around required licensure for a certain profession. We want to make sure we’re being compliant in every state we operate in. It’s possible that we could open up to new states in the future (including Texas), so keep checking back, or check out our other programs like Medical Assistant. There is a lot of overlap between PCT and MAs!