Medical Assisting Online Degree? Is that really possible? Or is it a scam?

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And how do you do your practicum?

 

I would like to start pursing this now so that I can have a decent job when the kids graduate.  And since I am always at the doctors, I will probably be able to get good words in whenever the time comes and I am ready for a job. :o)

 

 

[Liz CA]

Don't know if the specific one you are considering is legit but there are many degrees offered online now and the practicum is done locally at an appropriate place. The office where you would be completing your hours would just verify this to the university. Since medical assisting is different from nursing, I can see that it may work as an online course.

[SLT]

Make sure it isn't one of the "for-profit" schools. The tuition is INCREDIBLY expensive (20-30k a year) and the income you make is not at all worth it. Possibly look into a nursing program. You can take two years to complete your medical assisting degree and earn 12-13 dollars an hour when you graduate where I am (Charlotte, NC) or a nursing degree in the same amount of time,  and make 20+ an hour at an office (or 25-35 starting off in the hospital). I have a friend who is a CMA who has been working as a CMA for 20 years and now earns $16 an hour after raises. She does the same thing in the office as our nurses and you truly wouldn't know she isn't a nurse- but she makes about ten dollars less an hour than our nurses and works just as hard doing the same tasks. Not fair! 

 

Here, the online degree places set up practicals at the offices. There are certain weeks when we spend the entire week (at my peds office) with these students. Some weeks they have 40 hours of practicals near the end of their degree. 

Edited January 13, 2016 by SLT