Whats the difference between a nurse assistant and a medical assistant?

I am a medical assistant. I take vitals, clean wounds, assist the physician with minor office surgeries, draw blood, I can work in the medical lab processing the blood that I am trained to draw. I am trained in moderate complexity lab tests like CBC, TSH, BMP, PT's etc. medical assistants are trained to code and bill insurances for the practice that they are hired for. we do not do the dirty work for nurses. we are multiskilled allied health care workers. we are patient advocates as wells advocates for the physicians. medical assistants explain procedures to patients and we schedule appointments for the patients. we do patient call backs for lab results and we keep the doctors schedules .

A Nurse Assistant aka CNA does all the dirty work for the Registered Nurse they are working under. They do no clinical duties whatsoever except for the taking of the vital signs. Mostly bathing and assisting with bathroom/adult diaper changes. CNAs usually work in a Hospital or Old peoples home.

A Medical Assistant does a lot of clicical work usually in a doctor's office. They do EKGs, give injections, draw blood, among other things.

The pay can be different. It all depends on who you work for.

A nurse's assistant is required to have very little education... i'm not even sure they have to have an associate's degree... but they must meet certain requirements, whereas a medical assistant, or a physician's assistant, must receive a master's degree at minimum... having 6 or more years of training... a physician's assistant is below a doctor, but higher than a nurse. They must be under supervision of a physician, but are allowed to do many things physicians do...

As far as I know the nurse assistant actually does back office things, such as perhaps drawing blood, taking blood pressure, etc. to assist the nursing staff. A medical asst. often does insurance billing, etc. and other administrative work.

I was called for a job one time and it was to run the office of the medical practice (which is my field). I later found out the job was advertised as looking for a medical asst. If I had read this, I would never have applied; I would have thought it was partially back office work.

If you are applying for a job, you might look for any certification requirements, such as CNA, which is usually back office work assisting the nursing staff. Usually administrative work either requires a degree or experience in insurance billing, transcribing, etc.

With knowing the job requirements or any certification requirements, it is hard to tell what a job wants just by the title.

One receives a two weeks training, the other receives a three weeks training.